


As Disaster Tolls

by FlorarenaKitasatina



Category: Little Buster Q
Genre: Age-Up, Alternate Universe, Dark, F/M, street life, wrong side of the law
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-02-17
Updated: 2017-01-28
Packaged: 2018-05-21 05:18:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 18
Words: 71,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6039733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlorarenaKitasatina/pseuds/FlorarenaKitasatina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The life of a criminal is rough, especially in the worst suburbs of the worst county on the face of the planet. Gang-fights, drugs, sex, having to grapple with the police—from the smallest offense to the largest crime, you name it; anything's fair game in a thug's world. One such thug, redheaded and brash, finds himself in a mess that keeps heaping problems at his doorstep faster than he is able to rectify them. It all starts with a seemingly-innocuous woman who unwittingly brings trouble hounding at her heels, and it spirals on from there.</p><p>Perhaps, though, he can find some help in this unfolding chaotic string of events. Maybe, just maybe, even companionship—all he has to do is play his cards right. Which is a hard thing to do, as the problems keep piling up and up...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter I- Bullets of Crimson

Life is a tricky beast, one that cannot be bested no matter how long one lives or how they go about handling their fleeting days. This is especially true if one were out in the dilapidated streets of a bad downtown neighborhood that was overshadowed by more prosperous counties. Walking down such a street was a young, thin, filthy adult and red-haired male sporting a wrinkled grey shirt, his stature upright and his hands in his dirtied pants pockets. He turned into an alley, gaze vacant and eyes marred with bloodshot veins. A frown had been firmly etched onto his face, but the reason why couldn’t be seen, apart from his aforementioned eyes. Did he not sleep well the night prior, perhaps?

He paused to scan his dingy surroundings. There’d been an overturned trashcan here, some loose garbage there, and wanted posters tacked to the walls. The man gave the first two things no more recognition than a mere irritated huff from his briefly-flared nostrils, though he stopped to eyeball the posters. One depicted a red-haired man whose hair almost looked orange and was cut short, as well as matching eyes, with such pale skin one could've easily mistook him for a vampire. Another poster had a similarly-pale woman, with pale blue wavy hair and eyes that matched in color, but did not gleam in the slightest. 

A third depicted a fearsome-looking man, with his face seemingly split at the cheeks, forming a ghoulish grin. He had dull blue eyes, and very dark and dirty hair of a similar color, with an unkempt mustache framing his upper lip. Below his picture, and those of the other two persons on separate posters, sat a list of crimes the young male didn't care to look at. "I am not going near that dude ever, let alone the other two," he scoffed to himself in a cold voice. "I'd rather keep my nuts, my ass and my face intact. Hell, I'd rather find a crazy prostitute than run into any of those three guys." With that, he walked on, only stopping upon finding more posters.

The other posters depicted one person wearing a bird's mask and hoodie and another lad entirely clad in black garments. One more picture caught his eye, detailing a person with something blue atop their head who was running when the photo was taken, thus blurring most of their features. The words **'Raging Siren, wanted suspect in a murder'** were plastered beneath the photo. He sighed and resumed his walking, turning down another walkway when he stopped yet again, this time whirling right back around to where he had just left. He heard footsteps echo for a moment before seeing a shadow that darkened the path he stood facing, and this ebony mass did not come from the left nor the right.

No. He found that it came from behind him. He whipped around again and found another man advancing towards him, a bulky lad that cracked his knuckles as he approached. “Say, what’s you doin’ out in these woods, Volcanic Shot?” the burly brute asked, a grisly grin spreading across his visage.

The ‘Volcanic Shot,’ as the musclehead so dubbed him, betrayed little more than a twitching eye. “Yeah, I’m in these woods; the fuck are ya gonna do about it, Dumbbell?” he taunted, his frown curling up into a smirk.

The musclehead tried to smile, but it came out more like a grimace. He took another step forward, only to stop dead in his tracks as the Shot pulled up one side of his shirt and pulled something silver out of a previously-hidden holster. Clenched tightly in a hand marked by a black fingerless glove was a double-action revolver pistol with a medium-length muzzle, and one that appeared to be in such a pristine condition it contrasted its owner’s own haggard appearance like day and night.

“Well, what’re ya gonna do to me, pissant?” the Shot chirped, a cocky smile plastering his visage. His eyes, though they were still quite bloodshot, gleamed with a raging wild fire that burned in the black of his pupils. He took his other hand out of its pocket and cocked the pistol, disabling the safety feature with a mere flick of his thumb.

“Listen here, pepper head,” ‘Dumbbell’ began, his grimace now turning into a scowl, “I will crush yer bones ‘till they bend sideways! And besides, yer not even manly enough to have short hair—you’s walks around with a long-ass ponytail!”

The Shot yawned and used his free hand to fiddle about with the aforementioned ponytail, tugging at a dirtied white ribbon until it came loose, letting his long hair drift down. The mass stopped at his thighs, and he wrapped the ribbon around his left wrist. “It’s my hair, and it belongs to me. You have absolutely no say over how long I grow the shit,” he spat, his grin fading. “And it may be red like my fucking eyes, but I do _not_ walk around with a pepper stamped to my forehead!”

The vehement redhead raised the pistol, clutching the handle with both hands. Dumbbell stepped forward again, only to briefly flinch as the barrel of the gun continued to rise up. He walked closer, now standing a mere few inches from his opponent.

A loud bang echoed from that alley into the surrounding street as the bulky sod tumbled backwards like a domino, his forehead now marked by a profusely bleeding wound. The Shot turned and ran right where he came from, sheathing his weapon in its holster before going out into the street where a sparse number of folks had gathered to figure out where the bang had come from.

He darted past them, long hair trailing behind him like a cape that was dirty, thin, and marked by fragmented stringy ends. He kept running in and out of alleys, as if he were a lab rat trapped in the most complex of mazes yet. The man weaved around corners and almost skid headlong into a few brick walls, but this never really stalled him; all he had to do was back away from the walls and find a new path.

After a good half-hour, this marathon led him to a suitable corridor between two buildings, one with a few dumpsters that were overshadowed by some tacky window roofs said buildings appeared to have insisted on having for some reason. One dumpster was closed, while the rest were open and overflowing with rubbish.

The Shot smiled and ran towards the dumpster that had its lids closed. He lifted a lid with a hand and looked inside, his nose wrinkling at the age-old stench of rot and mold. “Phew!” he hissed as he climbed in and closed the lid behind himself, making sure to pull in any strands of loose red hair as he went. “Gonna have to shower after this,” he whispered, his voice barely an echo in the darkness of his hiding place. At least this dumpster had nothing else inside it, which had been a blessing on his part.

Silence took hold of the alley he hid in, at least for another good fifteen minutes or so. The crimson-haired lad sat idly by, on the brink of twiddling his thumbs when he heard fast-paced footsteps come from outside his momentary place of solitude. He quirked a brow as he heard three more sets following the first, and all three ran past the massive trash canister without even knowing what’d been within it.

“Stay away!” a woman’s voice cried. As if on reflex, the Shot unsheathed his pistol again, and he scowled once more. The owner of the voice sounded desperate and scared, like she had to get away from whatever made her utter the two-word remark. The man opened the lid and stood up to take a peek outside, and that’s when he saw two more burly men plus a third obese lad circling a woman like ravenous vultures. This woman had distinct, brilliant azure hair, but with the men cutting off all avenues of escape like hungry wolves, this one feature was all he could make out.

Without warning, the Shot raised his pistol towards the lot and fired three bullets, each one striking the men in the legs before they even knew what hit them. All three howled and collapsed against the walls of the buildings, and the man with the weapon leaped out of the dumpster and darted right past the woman he’d just helped out. “Ya might wanna run while ya can, woman!” he warned as he weaved around another corner whilst sheathing his gun. “Don’t wanna be here when the bluesuits show up!”

He kept running, but another set of footsteps—fast-paced, but accompanied by light thumps instead of hard thuds—let him know that the woman had at least complied with his request. To and fro from varying alleys he went in a blaze of adrenaline, only slowing to catch his breath once he found himself in an entirely deserted street within another thirty minutes. He leaned against a wall, his breath ragged and raspy, inhales and exhales coming in short-lived bouts. The nerves in his lungs felt as if trapped in white-hot fire, his frantic breathing only further accentuating his pain.

As soon as his breath more or less returned to a regular pattern, and his chest stopped aching, he let a small smile creep up on his lips. “Rekka, you glorious bastard,” he mused aloud, ”you’ve done it again. You may be a sharpshootin’ sum-bitch that kills without mercy, but damn, ya have done some good today.”

And he’d been right; if that woman’s pursuers had not been shot down, lord knows what they might have done to her. But he found himself frowning thoughtfully. “Blue hair…” he murmured, raising his left hand to rub his chin as he kept thinking aloud. “Wonder who she was.”

Rekka took a cursory glance at his surroundings, noticing an apartment complex that stood out from the rest like a sore thumb. It was still whole, unlike some of the buildings that had holes in their walls, roofs, and missing windows and doors. A few had even crumbled to rubble in the street he stood in, and unlike those, the whole one had a fire escape ladder on one side. He smiled and approached the still-intact complex with sure-footed steps, going up the small stairs that greeted him and opening the door before striding inside.

Shutting the door behind him and taking the time to turn a latch mechanism, he strode down the dingy hallway marked by many doors he found himself in and spotted a set of stairs marking the middle. Whirling onto the flight before he had the chance to pass it, he ascended to the next floor, and the floor after that. On the third floor, he spotted a door that stood ajar from the others on one far end of the hall, and his grin only widened. Rekka quickened his pace towards that door, uncoiling the ribbon that had still been around his wrist.

“Home sweet home,” he sighed as he entered the room, which had a hardwood floor, a staircase at the back that led to a door and another set of doors sitting on either side of said flight. This area was been considerably cleaner than the rest of the place—It was by no means spotless, and it had very little furniture, but at least it could be lived in comfortably. He trudged to a couch rested against the left wall that had a small coffee table before it and plopped his butt on the cushions prior to pulling out his gun from its holster. He opened the bullet chamber of the revolver and emptied out the used husks of the bullets he fired earlier.

“Only two shots left before I need to reload…” the man mumbled when he noticed a peculiar red dot that stuck out like a sore thumb on the silvery surface of his weapon. He moved his left index finger and gently touched the dot, keeping the two entities just barely touching for a moment before pressing down and smearing the strange crimson blot along the barrel of his gun.

“Looks like I can’t go one damn day without dirtying my weapon… then again, that’s coming from a man in need of a bath,” Rekka remarked with a snide smirk spreading on his face as he glanced at the coffee table, now looking at a small drawer that sat just inches from the couch he parked himself on. It stood wide open, yet it hardly contained anything. With the same hand he smeared the red on his gun with, he reached in and plucked the only object within: a very dirty and aged handkerchief that was once pure white but now a dull maroon.

When the cloth touched the weapon, he paused for a moment. Had he just now heard something? The man blinked and quirked a brow, his entire form stiff as if frozen in time. “Bah, it’s probably just me,” he mumbled after five minutes of absolute silence had passed. He started to rub the cloth on the gun, making sure not to accidentally shoot himself as the cloth blotted up the red and any other residue that might’ve gotten on the silvery surface. Once he finished cleaning the weapon, he spun the bullet chamber and latched it back into its default position: at the ready for emptying the last two bullets if the need ever arose.

The crimson-haired man stood up and eyed a door on the opposite end of the sofa. Taking the gun with him, he weaved around the coffee table and walked towards the door before pausing yet again mid-way. It sounded like a very, very faint thud, but since he’d been most likely nowhere near the source—or hearing things, as he first assumed—Rekka could not accurately judge what it was that had made the noise.

His muscles tensed as he heard a distant voice scream. The wail itself wasn’t particularly loud, but here, it was just as alarming and unsettling. “Whoever’s howling ain’t none of your damn business, Rekka,” the man chided himself, a frown on his face. “Man up already and get to the damn bathroom.” Yet he could not move his legs, no matter how much he willed them to do so; they remained unbidden, and thus kept him effectively glued to his spot.

Another wail resounded, this time louder but also shorter-lived. The man turned to the door that lead into his home, his frown growing more pronounced as another frown creased his brow. Now, though, he heard a faint series of thumps, yet still could not accurately tell where they had been coming from. Finally realizing he still held the revolver, he flicked the safety off with a quick movement of his thumb and waited.

Silence lasted for no more than fifteen minutes.

Rekka was just about to snarl when he heard the thumps again, once more louder in volume, although this time there’d been no wail to accompany the racket. But he heard two other things acting in tandem: the jiggling of doorknobs, and a frantic whimpering. Raising his gun with the safety still switched off, his legs finally moved him towards his residential door at a sluggish pace.

The Shot found himself going stiff as a brick as soon as his door had been flung open before he could even walk a quarter of the way there. The intruder ran in, whirled around and slammed it shut before he could get a good look at their face. He did, however, take notice of brilliant azure hair that hung messily past the shoulders of his uninvited guest, as well as the fact that, whoever it was, they were wearing clothes which barely held together. The person turned around again, holding the door with their body as if they depended on it, which caused the man’s eyes to widen substantially.

The intruder had been a woman, her shirt and lower garments so shredded he got a decent view of her goods. Yet Rekka found himself looking more at her left shoulder than at her exposed breasts, and this had been because there was a hideous wound of some kind that’d been fresh and bleeding at an alarming rate. He then looked towards her face, seeing eyes leaking tears, irises and pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Her face was a petite one, but marred by heavy bruising of her right cheek and the aforementioned tears.

The Shot opened his mouth to speak, but before he could utter a word, the woman darted past him; her left arm dangled slack against her body, her breathing hitched and riddled with sobs, and there were drops of crimson falling from her body and making an erratic trail as she went. He turned just in time to see her ascend the flight of stairs, with what remained of her clothes falling off of her body in the process and exposing more bruises. Not once did she look at him; if anything, the girl acted like the tenant of this place did not even exist.

For a moment, he could not comprehend just what had happened right in his home, in front of his very own eyes.

Another noise greeted his ears, and it sounded like one man yelling from below. “Where’s the blue-haired bitch hiding?” someone asked, his voice barely audible to Rekka’s ears. The man scowled again, turning to glance at the floor for a moment before looking at the cloth-riddled, bloodstained flight of stairs.

Suddenly, it clicked in his head like the flick of a switch. “That woman’s brought sticks for the bonfire tonight,” the Shot hissed to himself, turning to the door that his guest had rudely opened and slammed shut just minutes earlier.

More shouting came from below. “Bitch was stupid enough to leave us a trail of blood!” cried whoever had chased the woman to this place.

“Trail of…” Rekka’s thought processes shut down as he glanced to the floor and noticed the erratic trail of crimson droplets that had marred the aged wood tiles, and his eyes had widened. “Oh, for the love of—this isn’t good…” the man snarled, turning back to the door that had been opened and slammed and scowled at it, cocking his gun again and clutching it tightly.

That azure-haired woman brought trouble with her, chance be damned, and now the Volcanic Shot was right in the middle of the mess. “Hey, it goes upstairs!” the voice from below hollered again, this time louder in volume. “Wait ‘till that harlot gets her dues! Matsuki’s brother’s gonna love makin’ her scream!”

“Harlot?” Rekka murmured, eyes widening once more. “Was that lady a…” he stopped himself and shook his head when the faint thumps began yet again, gradually getting louder in volume. Now, he could identify two sets of footsteps coming his way, but the crimson-haired man only scowled as he waited patiently for the new guests to show up. He could also make out the tell-tale sounds of jiggling doorknobs, and hid the gun and his arms behind his back well before his door found itself flung open again.

Beyond stood two rather obese men, and as the Shot briefly scanned them from head to toe, he noticed that one was brandishing a kitchen knife that had gotten stained in blood. “Who are you two, and who the hell is Matsuki?” the gunslinger questioned, his face hardening as he looked at the men dead in the eyes.

“Who we are is none of yer damn business,” the man with the knife snarled, turning to the other and elbowing him in the arm. “Ya think we should take him to the boss too?” he asked the second fat man, using the knife to gesture towards Rekka as he spoke.

“He ain’t the one we’re after,” the second man replied. He wasted no time in pulling out a switchblade knife from one of his pants pockets while he glanced at the tenant, who was still standing with his arms behind his back as he waited for the answer to his question regarding this ‘Matsuki’ fellow. “But since he’s in our way, we might as well tell him who Matsuki was before he dies,” he added with a snide smirk adorning his face.

“Heh, Matsuki was our boss, pal,” the man wielding the bloody cutlery spoke, also donning a hideous smile. “That blue-haired bitch killed him with her bare hands, and our boss’s brother wants her sweet ass alive,” he answered, brandishing the knife in a way the blade pointed downward.

Rekka donned a sly grin, glancing at the two men before speaking. “I’d tell ya to find his ass and leave him a message, _but_ …” the man trailed off, eyes glinting like a flame.

“But what?” the man with the switchblade hissed as the Shot moved his arms from behind his back, revealing his revolver to them. Clasping it with both hands, he rose the weapon and took aim before shooting the cutlery-holder right in the left eye. The other man screamed as his companion fell over like a tree that had been cut with an axe, blood pouring where his eye had been.

“You were stupid enough to bring knives to threaten the Volcanic Shot.” The redhead’s smirk widened as he fired off the last bullet in the chamber, hitting the other man right in his heart. The switchblade-user keeled over as well, falling on his face and gasping for breath like a fish out of water as the light left his eyes.

The only living man in the room turned to the flight of stairs that the supposed murderer of someone’s boss had ran up earlier, and his grin faded as he put the gun in its holster. Quickly, he rushed to the bathroom and found a mirror with knobs hanging above a sink. He grabbed the knobs and flung the mirror open, revealing a medical compartment where a thick roll of bandages was sitting on one of the small shelves next to a bottle of rubbing alcohol.

Rekka grabbed the bottle and bandages before he rushed out of the bathroom and blazed up the stairs like he had been a demon, pushing open a door at the top of the flight before his face could collide with it. The azure-haired woman had huddled herself in a corner next to a five-drawer dresser, looking at the tenant with a reddened, tear-stained face. Her breathing still hitched, and her wounded shoulder still seeped with blood. “Y-you… killed them?” the girl asked, her voice quavering and faltering as she spoke.

“Yeah. I’d get the bodies out of the doorway, but there are bigger fish to fry right now,” the man stated with a firm nod, using the hand that was holding the roll of bandages to gesture to the lady’s shoulder. “Listen, I’ll patch up your shoulder, get ya some clothes, and take you home. That sound good?”

The woman’s eyes averted. “I… have no home to go to,” she murmured.

“You’re… homeless?” Rekka quirked a brow, taking a step towards the woman. He paused when she recoiled.

“Y-yeah. H-hell, all I have is a name a-at this rate,” she answered with a shaky nod of her head.

“Why’s that?” the man asked, taking another step forwards. This time, the woman merely flinched her good shoulder, using her right arm to keep her knees to her chest, her legs concealing her nude body.

“M-Matsuki… he was all I-I knew, b-but…” she trailed off as the man knelt before her, concern alight in his red eyes.

“Move your legs please. I need to get to your hurt shoulder,” Rekka said simply, looking the woman in her eyes and never once looking away. When she complied, he hastily opened the bottle of alcohol and poured some of it onto the open wound. The woman yelped and flinched, but dared not cover the open, bleeding hole with her hand. Once he finished drenching the hole in alcohol, he set the bottle down and unrolled the bandages while asking, “What did this Matsuki guy do to you?”

“He… he tried m-making me s-sleep with his g-gang members, and I…” the woman paused to gulp loudly, flinching as the bandages touched her skin.

“Go on,” the crimson-haired man implored, nodding as he continued to wrap her wound.

“I t-took a knife and s-stabbed him in the throat before r-running away,” the girl gulped again as the tenant started to wrap the bandages around her torso, just beneath her breasts and shoulders.

“Tell me something,” Rekka sighed as he finished with the wrappings, standing up and approaching the dresser and opening a drawer full of clothes.

“W-what?” the azure-haired lady asked, watching as he began shuffling through the accumulated clothes in the drawer.

“Was Matsuki a mob boss?” he asked, pulling out a black shirt and closing the drawer before opening another drawer and shuffling through it.

“Worst one i-in the s-streets I-I’ve seen,” the woman answered with a nod.

“And why did you stay with him up until his throat got cut?” Rekka continued, closing the second drawer without pulling out any clothes. He bent over and pulled open the third drawer before rummaging through it. “I mean, sure, his mob boss gig might’ve been a factor, but I wanna be sure it is,” he added, procuring a pair of boxers.

“He… owned me. H-he decided what I did, w-what I ate, a-and what friends I made. He also scared me so much I-I didn’t know what h-had happened until I s-stabbed him,” she clarified just as the man pulled out a pair of yellow shorts and handed the clothes to her.

“Sounds to me like he was a control freak and owned a prostitution ring.” Rekka frowned, watching as the woman put the shirt on first before standing up on shaky legs. It didn’t help that her left arm had still hung slack against her side and that she had to fight with it just to get it through the other sleeve, letting the shorts and boxers drop to the floor in the process.

“H-he was…” the woman paused, bending over to pick up the boxers. “C-could you help me put these on, p-please? My left arm won’t budge b-by itself,” she asked politely.

“I can see that.” The man nodded and took the boxers from her, kneeling down and holding them in a way she could easily slide her feet into the holes. He pulled them up and up, briefly pausing when he noticed a suspicious-looking array of scars hovering between her thighs, until they covered her hips and crotch. He did the same with the shorts, and once this was done, he turned and glanced at a nearby bed not too far from where she huddled at. “You can sleep in my bed tonight. Hell, you need a nap right now,” he added, picking up what was left of the gauze and the bottle of alcohol before gesturing to the bed.

The woman nodded and limped towards the bed, turning around to sit on it and wincing as her hand touched the mattress. “Shit, I t-think my arm’s b-broken,” she whimpered, looking at her currently useless limb before turning back to the tenant to see him open another drawer and start to dig through it frantically.

“C’mon, where is… aha!” Rekka cried, pulling out a dark brown scarf. He turned around and approached the woman before sitting next to her. He looked at her arm and rose a hand towards it, gently gripping it at different spots to feel for anything out of place. The woman winced all the while, and rose her right hand to cover her mouth and stifle a scream as he felt her shoulder.

“I got some good news, and some bad news,” the Shot began, keeping his hand on the wounded shoulder, “good news: you arm’s isn’t broken, just badly bruised. Bad news: somehow, your shoulder's been dislocated.”

“Dislo—” the woman stopped mid-sentence, screaming as her upper bone got pushed back into place by a firm hand. As her brief wail died down, the arm had gotten lifted and the scarf put under its frame, the ends of the cloth being tied behind her neck to form a crude sling.

“You need to keep that arm in that scarf for a while.” Rekka frowned before standing up. “I’m off to move the bodies of those men elsewhere; yodel if you need me.” With that, he was off walking out of the room, down the stairs, and into the hallway that lead into his home. He looked at the men again and scowled. “They just had to send fat bastards my way, didn’t they?”

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

The man closed the door of one of the other rooms of the apartment, breathing ragged and raspy again. “Shit,” he mumbled, “I think I need more muscle bulk.” He waited until his heart stopped thundering in his chest before making his way back to the room where the woman was sequestered at. His home wasn’t far off down the hall, since the men were so big that he could only drag them so far.

Within minutes, he found himself back in the room again. The woman took to lying on the bed, eating a bowl of soup on a nearby nightstand. The soup wasn’t anything special, but it did seem to perk her up a bit, if the way she ate the soup with voracity had been an indicator. Rekka noticed that her eyes, also a brilliant azure like her hair, had appeared to be shimmering a bit.

“So, how ya doing?” the redhead asked, letting a small smile grace his features.

“I feel much better,” the woman answered as she took in another spoonful of soup.

“That’s great.” Rekka’s smile only widened as he spoke. “That’s really great.” He moved towards the woman and leaned over to see how much she had eaten just as she put another spoonful in her mouth. She had practically polished off the bowl, and his smile evolved into a full-on grin. “I take it you were starving?” he mused.

“Hadn’t eaten for two days until now,” the woman chirped and nodded, a smile curling the corners of her lips upward.

The Shot’s eyes went wide as dinner plates at that point, but it only lasted for a few seconds. His eyes returned to normal as he nervously rubbed the back of his head with a hand. “I see,” he murmured. “What’s your name? You said earlier that it was all you had left,” he stated, his smile fading.

“It was a name Matsuki gave me, and frankly, I want to cast it aside,” the woman replied, her tone turning rather bitter.

“Yeesh, controlled every aspect of your life, did he? Well, if you want to toss your old name to the winds, I don’t blame ya.” The man nodded.

The woman rubbed her chin with her right hand for a moment and frowned thoughtfully. “Hmm… I think I found my new name,” she murmured, her frown fading again as a spark lit up in her eyes.

“Oh?” Rekka quirked a brow. “And what would that be?”

“Koto,” the woman replied, a smile returning on her face.


	2. Chapter II- Emotions of Azure

Weeks passed since the Volcanic Shot received an unexpected guest and helped her lick her wounds. Every day he woke up, checking on her well-being before making her breakfast and heading out into the streets again. Every night, before he’d flop on his couch, he’d run around his entire complex inside and out to make sure both he and the woman who had been staying with him would not get jumped by any more fat or burly bastards.

During one such night, while he had returned from his routine vigil, he paused and spotted a darker-than-black shadow in an alleyway. It darted off before he could get in another look, as swift and sure-footed as a jackrabbit. What was it? Had it been a person, an animal, or just his mind playing games with him?

“I need to get back to Koto,” Rekka mumbled to himself, hoping that whatever the thing had been didn’t hear him as he resumed his trek to the apartment. He hastened his pace, hand hovering over his hidden gun, trigger finger twitching violently. He stopped again upon seeing another dark shape dart past the end of the alley, briefly illuminated by a flickering streetlight. The Shot started anew again, this time jogging until he reached the faltering halo of light.

Glancing around and seeing nothing out of the ordinary, the man sighed and briskly jogged back to his den, making sure to lock the front door behind him. He darted down the hall and up two flights of stairs, and before he knew it, he was back home. Koto sat on the couch, looking at him expectantly. “Anything happen lately?” she asked.

“Nothing happened today. Hell, the streets have gone too quiet for my liking lately,” Rekka answered, frowning. “It feels like the fucking alleyways grew eyeballs that are constantly staring at the back of my head.”

“That’s worrying,” the woman whimpered, briefly flinching.

“Damn straight. Since your arm’s almost better, I’m gonna have to find you a weapon now. I’m getting a bad feeling in my gut that if I leave you here alone and defenseless any longer, that something worse is gonna happen,” the man groaned, sighing heavily.

“I’ve been getting a similar feeling lately. When I woke up some nights for the past two weeks, there was a shadow… staring at me. It was there every time you were away,” Koto murmured, grimacing.

The man's frown deepened by a considerable margin, and Koto could see the concern and irritation flickering about in his eyes. “Joy, now we have a possible stalker to add to our list of worries,” Rekka groaned, bringing a hand up and letting it slap his forehead. He slid his hand down his face and added, “Want to share the bed tonight? Maybe the shadow will go away if we’re in the same room.” He had expected Koto to turn down the offer, but went wide-eyed as she frantically nodded.

“Is my arm good to go, though?” the woman asked, using her right hand to gesture to her left shoulder.

"Oh, right. Well, hold still and lemme check it," he replied, striding over to her form at a brisk pace. Carefully, he undid the crude sling and the wrappings before feeling the shoulder up, pausing when he felt her tense up. A few moments passed as he gazed at the healing area with a scrutinizing eye and a gentle hand before he said, "You can move your arm a bit, but don't push yourself. The wound's scabbed over, and we don't want it re-opening."

"A-alright," Koto murmured with a slow nod of her head. "I can manage that."

Rekka patted her good shoulder with a hand and sent a serene smile her way. "Good thing you're right-handed, eh?" he chirped, which earned him a giggle from the woman.

"I might have to go two-handed one of these days," Koto quipped, and smiled as Rekka laughed jovially.

The man's laughter was cut off as he held a hand over his mouth and let out a yawn. "Let's get to bed after I do something right quick," he mumbled. "I feel like I'm two seconds from dropping to the floor, and I'd rather not be on the floor." The woman nodded and watched as he went out of the den for a few moments. After a while, when he didn't return, she made for the door—only to pause as she heard the sound of many glass objects clinking together in unison. This was followed by Rekka returning, though now he was juggling a trash can that had a slew of glass bottles jutting out from the mouth.

He set it next to the stairs and turned to the woman. "If the shadow comes back, we'll know it's been here," he said.

"How?" Koto asked, quirking a brow. She eyed the canister warily, as it expecting it to grow legs and start kicking the nearest thing it could.

"It's filled with bottles; all glass. Since it's been so damn quiet lately, I could probably hear one clinking a whole floor below if someone decides to fuck with it. Put it like this: I am using an unusual alarm system," he replied before jostling out the door again. Another few moments passed before he came back, but not prior to the sound of another glass-filled something being placed outside the den's entrance.

"Put another can in front of the door, did we?" she mused, frowning.

"Yeah," came the reply. "Let's hit the hay, and please try not to touch me as we sleep. We've been on edge lately, and I'd rather not shoot you on accident." The woman nodded and followed him up the stairs that led to the bedroom, pausing briefly to glance down at the living room. She could've sworn she heard another set of footsteps in the hall beyond, yet hadn't been too sure if it was just her sleep-deprived and paranoid imagination. She stayed a moment longer, listening for the tell-tale sound of glass being tampered with, only to sigh and move on when it didn't come.

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"What the fuck?" Rekka groaned, narrowing his eyes at something outside the door of his home. Koto rushed over to him and stood on her tiptoes to peer over his shoulder, only to echo the three-word question the man had uttered. The two walked over and found an object jutting out of the opposite door, a slender thing betraying a golden sheen and adorned with artificial, rectangular fletching on one end.

The woman grabbed it and pried it out of the door with her right hand, revealing that the other end was tapered to a wickedly sharp point. She started running a thumb across its form. "It's a... a crossbow bolt," she murmured, jerking her gaze back to her companion. "What's it doing here?"

"That's a good question, but I got a better one: _how_ did it get here? I made damn sure to lock the front door last night, and almost all the doors of this complex are jammed shut," the redhead huffed, glaring at the crossbow bolt in the woman's hand. "And who the hell uses a crossbow anyway?"

"Beats me," Koto replied with a shrug. She hastily glanced around and added, "I feel like there are eyes staring at the back of my head now."

"How about we both go for a walk? It's still early morning, and nobody's out yet. A great opportunity to shake off our restlessness, if you ask me," Rekka suggested, giving the girl a small smile.

"But what if Matsuki's men show up? They could easily outnumber us, and... and..." Koto trailed off, fidgeting uncomfortably, the hand holding the accursed crossbow bolt trembling ever so slightly. "I don't want to see you get hurt, after all you've done for me," she finished, looking at her companion with a pleading look.

Rekka flinched before nodding in understanding. "You're right; those brutes could still be out there, waiting for us to set the wrong foot forward," he mumbled, mentally slapping himself for suggesting something that had great potential to land them both in trouble. "Speaking of, do you know who his brother was? The men that followed you here weeks ago mentioned something about him."

Koto shook her head. "I didn't even know he had a brother; he never told me much about himself," she admitted. "For all we know, he could have three or five siblings, and at least one would have control of his men, now that he's passed," she added.

"And whoever is in control of the mob is very likely out for your blood, no less. Still doesn't explain the damn crossbow bolt, though," the redhead conceded, nodding slowly.

"True," the blue-haired woman sighed, glancing back at the object in question. "What should we do with this bolt?" she asked.

Rekka stared at the object, unblinking as he sighed deeply. Silence held for a seemingly long time, until he spoke in a quiet voice, "We keep it until we find who left it here. I have a hunch that whoever left it here intended for the damn thing to be a threat of some kind."

"Alright. I'll put this up somewhere," Koto replied, and she darted back into the den. A few moments passed before she returned empty-handed. "It's in one of the cabinets."

"Good deal," Rekka said simply, nodding in satisfaction. "I think we should both look around the complex for a bit and see if we find anything fishy," he added, walking to the trash can next to the den's entrance and studying it for a few moments. He turned to her to speak again, only for words to die in his throat as he heard footsteps shuffling about nearby. Unsheathing his weapon and flicking the safety off as a doorknob rattled violently just down the hall, he slinked to it as it continued to jiggle about like a bobblehead.

Once he strayed within three door lengths of the seemingly-possessed knob, it stopped still, and he paused to listen again. When the sound of a metal object being tampered with and another one colliding with something else thereafter hit his ears, he ran to the door and flung the obstacle open, only to find another series of completely empty rooms beyond. These rooms were devoid of anything, furniture, wallpaper; the place was absolutely barren. The walls splintered and the floor groaned as he took a few cautious steps inside. "Show yourself," the Shot snarled as he walked into the room at a slow gait. When, after a moment, whoever or whatever fumbled about with the doorknob didn't comply with his request, he ran up and down all of the rooms, of which there were four in total. 

Nothing turned up inside any of the rooms; they were simply empty through and through, and as such all he had to do was take a peek in to see if anything was inside. He found a lack of whoever tampered with the doorknob earlier, let alone a trace that such a person had been present in the same damned building. Upon inspecting the last room, which was particularly broad, he again found nothing—except for a set of swinging metal doors, with a latch of steel laying discarded on the floor. He ran over to the anomaly and inspected it, finding that it lead outside to the rusted fire escape ladder. A shadow darted around the corner of the nearest alley, just barely caught in Rekka's cross-hairs, but still moving far too fast for him to discern who or what it was. He shut the door, turned around, and kicked a hole in a wall in frustration before returning to the hall and closing the second door behind himself.

He turned to Koto and sighed, "Whatever was in there just left through the fucking fire escape; that may have been our crossbow person. Stay close; you're still unarmed, I don't know how many bolts our culprit has on them, and I only have so many bullets on me. Alright?"

The woman nodded. "Sounds good to me," she answered. With that, the two filed down the hall, two flights of stairs, and out of the complex. The light of dawn started peeking out in the skies above, providing light where the street lamps failed to glow. Koto glanced down one end of the street, and Rekka turned his gaze towards the other, yet neither saw any other person out and about.

Noticing that they were seemingly the only souls present, the duo slowly walked down towards one end of the street, eyes darting every which-way, constantly peeled for any other signs of life. The street had gone very quiet, and did not even have any stray animals foraging about; as though this part of town hadn't been touched in years. The derelict buildings certainly didn't help with that impression, especially since the footsteps of the Shot and his companion did not break the silence that had settled in.

"This place feels like a ghost district," Koto murmured, shooting Rekka a glance. "There's nobody else here."

"It's too quiet still," Rekka sighed, frowning. "I swear, if it could get anymore quiet right now, I'd probably hear an earthquake coming three miles away."

"Let's round the corner and keep looking. I want to be certain nobody else is out here," the woman whimpered as they kept walking. At the end of the street, they stopped in their tracks upon seeing something jutting out of the remains of a telephone pole.

"Another crossbow bolt," Rekka snarled, glaring at the offending object before him and Koto. He yanked it out of the aged, splintering wood and tossed it into an alley, grinning as it landed in a semi-filled dumpster. He glanced around for a moment before turning to the woman and gently grabbing her arm. "Let's head back; there doesn't seem to be anyone else waltzing in the streets."

Koto nodded and willingly went with the man as he turned and half-dragged her back down the street. She glanced around as they slinked back to the den, ever-wary of whatever could've procured the crossbow bolts. As they approached the hiding hole, she spotted a set of two open entities; one was a window on the ground floor that she could easily access, given the opportunity—and the other, stationed on the second floor, framed by swinging metal doors at the top was a rusted fire escape ladder that stretched all the way down. "Is that the fire escape?" she asked, turning to her companion who mutely nodded back. The two found themselves back home without incident, and flopped on the couch as though they became nothing more than heavy stones in a lake.

"Maybe I was wrong; perhaps Matuski's men have given up on finding me altogether," Koto remarked, turning to her companion as he let off a dry laugh.

"Then again, I killed two of them weeks ago; I think those guys were delivery boys whose last stop led them straight to hell," Rekka sighed, a small grin on his face as he spread his arms on the back of the sofa and crossed his legs. "Since said delivery boys have been dead for a while, the mob's probably trying to find them first. Which is good; less hot water for us to slosh through."

He stilled for a moment before violently twitching in place as he felt another form snuggle up to him, and shot a glance at Koto as she rested her head on his shoulder. "Koto...?" he asked, confusion tinging his voice as he uncrossed his legs and rose one arm off of the couch's back.

"Yes?" the woman answered, her form shifting a little closer as she responded.

The redhead sat there in silence for what felt like an eternity, still convulsing and quivering all the while, at a complete loss of words with which to convey another response. Finally, he settled on something resembling a coherent reply, and swallowed thickly before venturing, "What are you doing?"

"Snuggling," the woman answered curtly, sighing softly once more. "Is there a problem with that?"

"Yeah; you're in my bubble. Stop," he replied, firmly placing a hand on her shoulder and shoving her back.

Koto giggled. "Haven't been close with anyone?" she asked before scooching closer again.

"N-no," he answered, again shoving her back—this time hard enough to send her to the other side of the couch.

"Not physically, or anything like that?" she persisted, and again crept right up to the man as though his knocking her back didn't faze her, much less give her an incentive to stay away.

"No!" Rekka exclaimed as he scrambled to his feet, almost tripping over the coffee table. He jumped back as the woman tried to cuddle him again, his shoulders flinching like no tomorrow.

"How close were you with anybody before meeting me?" she asked, hopping over the coffee table and tackling him in one fluid motion. Now, the Shot found himself with his back against the wall, and he glared at the woman who had pushed him right to it.

"Nobody, alright?! I wasn't even close with my mom or dad; in fact, I don't like being touched, period!" the man answered, his voice rising. Some color drained from his face as he spoke, yet his eyes betrayed a spark of anger. Koto backed off upon hearing his tone, and quickly returned to the couch. He sighed and let his voice drop a strata of volume lower, "Can you not jump me again, please? I just... I'm not one of those people."

"Alright," she groaned in a defeated tone, "I'll stop."

"Alright," Rekka stated with a nod. He returned to the couch and sat on one end, noticing the woman had scooched to the other side. He turned to her with a brow raised, "Why'd you ask me if I was close with anybody else? Hell, why'd you pounce me?" 

"To be honest, I was curious, and... all my life, I thought pouncing men was the way to get closer to them. You haven't told me much about yourself for the past few weeks you've been watching me," Koto answered, turning away from the man. "I wasn't that close with anybody myself. I was the most distant with Matsuki and his gang, in fact. Yet, up until I stabbed him and realized that, I merely _thought_ I was close with him," the woman sighed, a slightly bitter note present in her voice. "Only one that comes as close to the distance scale as that... asshole would be my own mother," she added, her shoulders shaking.

The Volcanic Shot raised a brow as the woman prattled on, seeing her hunching over the arm of the couch and quivering once more, "I suppose I should be thanking the old cunt for even letting me have a chance to live... then again, it wasn't like she had a choice. Dad was a mob boss, and she was a whore, and both of them hated me. Didn't even name me! Sold me off before I could say anything against his decision, and that started a long string of events that dragged me to Matsuki. I should consider myself lucky; I hadn't gotten a single disease during my time of servicing those bastards."

Rekka's jaw had, at this point, dropped open, and his eyes widened to the size of saucers. He sat there, watching the woman as she started to hiccup. "But now... now I'm f-free," she babbled, her form tensing for a moment as she finally turned to him with a red, tear-stained face. With heaving and hitched breathing, she continued, "I'm finally f-free from a-all of that! A-and when I-I see d-dad again, I-I'm gonna shiv him! I-I'll sh-shiv him so hard h-he'll go b-braindead!"

The dots connected in his head, and he murmured softly, "So, when Matsuki tried making you sleep with his men all at once... that was your breaking point?"

"Y-yeah. I-I was b-blinded by my own a-anger," the woman answered in a hushed tone, burying her face into her hands as sobs began to finally mangle her words to nigh-incoherency. "Y-you... d-didn't tr-treat me l-like that... R-Rekka, I-I don't kn-know what t-t-t-to do any-anymore..."

Rekka's response was to scooch to the woman and put a hand on her shoulder, giving it a gentle squeeze as fragments of disjointed words spilled from her mouth. He frowned deeply, letting the woman murmur and release muffled screeches into her palms as she vented out her feelings like tomorrow wasn't coming. _"Whatever Matsuki did to her had been pretty fucked up,"_ the man thought as a despondent sigh left his mouth.

A few moments passed, and as the woman's sobs began to hush, he murmured, "I won't let you go through that... hell again. Matuski's men are going to have to trample over my dead body first." The woman took another few moments to fully quiet, breathing uneven but steadying. He pulled away a little bit, and she removed her hands from her face before collapsing on the couch. Her eyes had screwed shut, though the creases along the seams of her closed eyelids started to vanish.

"Asleep already?" Rekka asked, smiling faintly as the woman didn't respond. Shifting his arms so he could heft her up, he stood and made his way to the bedroom with her in tow. A soft snore came from Koto, indicating that she had indeed fallen asleep. Carefully opening the door and striding inside, he set her on the bed and covered her up before yawning. "I guess we both need a nap," he remarked dryly before crawling into the covers himself. He kept his distance from her on the bed, turning his back to her before drifting off.

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An uncounted amount of time passed before the Volcanic Shot had been aroused, sitting up and blinking sleep away with bleary eyes. He immediately jolted, as he felt a hand not his own drift down his stomach and trail lower. He jerked his gaze towards Koto, who mumbled something angrily in her sleep. One hand flew to her shoulder and gently shook it, causing the woman's eyes to flutter open.

"Uh, Koto, your hand..." Rekka groaned in an agitated, firm voice while his other hand grabbed the woman's wrist and pried her entire arm off of him, "it was about to touch my junk. Watch where your hands go, please."

"Wha?" Koto moaned, looking at the man with a dazed, sleep-fogged expression. A moment passed before she registered the feeling of her fingertips barely brushing his side as her hand was sent careening back to her and almost immediately thereafter, she sat bolt upright. "I-I was... d-dreaming," she whimpered defensively, flinching as if expecting to be yelled at again.

"It's alright, I understand; dreams come and go as they damn well please. If one of those dreams happen again, at least attempt to reign in your hands before they go somewhere they don't belong," the man sighed, shaking his head at the woman. Looking for a way to keep this situation from getting any more awkward than it already was, he changed the subject, "Wanna get something to eat? We both kinda collapsed without eating first."

Koto nodded slowly. "Food sounds good right now," she mumbled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes with the same hand she came dangerously close to accidentally accosting Rekka with. "I checked the pantry and shelves before putting the crossbow bolt up, though," she sighed, frowning. "We have no food."

"Shit," Rekka cursed, now frowning. "Looks like I'll have to get more, somehow." A spark of revelation lit in his eyes, and he started grinning. "Hell, maybe we could get you a weapon while we're out foraging. Sound like a plan?"

"And maybe you could get more ammunition for that pistol of yours," Koto agreed, a smile splaying on her face.

"Yeah, I am low on bullets. Only got six left," the man sighed, nodding. He made to get off the bed, and stretched his arms over his head before finally noticing the inky darkness that blanketed the room. "Is it me, or is it night out?"

"It's probably evening; I think it was dawn when I passed out," the woman sighed, also getting up out of the bed. In doing so, she very nearly crashed into her companion, but managed to stop herself in time, and landed back on the bed in the process. "Should we hold out until tomorrow?"

"I usually do my scavenging during the night; in this part of town, not many folks are out. Great for finding food and ammo; I know a guy who can provide me with both, and he's almost always open at this hour," Rekka replied in a gentle, yet firm tone of voice. He walked to the door and beckoned Koto over with a hand, sighing when she hopped out of bed and approached him with a cautious gait. He opened the door and the two went down the stairs.

Koto waited until they finished descending down the flight before speaking up. "Will he... give me trouble?" she asked after a moment's hesitation.

"No, he won't. He's not that kind of person," the man replied, weaving to the right and finding himself in front of an open kitchen door that stood next to the flight of stairs. He looked in the room beyond, groaning at the pile of dirty dishes in a sink and a bag stuffed with empty cans and boxes that sat in front of a counter with a cupboard hanging over it. Rekka strode inside, turning left to find a fridge. He opened both doors, and found the fridge and freezer barren. "Though, I can certainly understand your paranoia. Just stick close to me, and you should be fine," he added, swiftly moving to the cupboard and flinging the doors open to find those empty as well.

Koto nodded in understanding. "Alright, I can manage that."


	3. Chapter III- Pursuit

A man sporting short, black hair and small, oval-shaped glasses hummed to himself as he stood in a large storage room filled with boxes of stuff, and some more boxes piled onto metal shelves. Some boxes were marked with "canned goods," some adorned with "snack cakes," and others marked with "ammunition," just to name a few. He turned to one side and eyed a pair of sleeping bags, one of which had a sleeping, brown-haired woman nestled inside. He smiled rather fondly before dusting off his white tank top and blue jeans and started striding to the woman.

"Kaguya, we may have outdone ourselves this time as shopkeepers," he murmured in a low enough voice so as to not rouse the woman as he approached. "The business is running smoothly, and the merger may have been the best thing that's happened to us yet." He smiled and slowly crept around her, filing down one row of shelves and boxes. In fifteen minutes, he found a rusted garage door, and settled in front of it was a white-stained-beige pickup truck. He patted the hood of the vehicle affectionately, a fond smile splaying on his lips before he turned around and waded his way back to Kaguya. 

He stopped upon seeing a set of newspaper articles on a shelf, with one reading **'Mob Boss Matsuki Wakizashi Confirmed Deceased'** and the other sporting the headline **'Jigoku Ryus Disband; Nature's Tengus Inexplicably Vanish; Abyssal Yatagarasu Fellowship Growing.'** "If only we could get rid of the damned gang problem," the man muttered to himself as he went on.

When he reached her, he paused before he could step over her slumbering form upon hearing the distant, tell-tale sound of a door creaking open. He whirled around in a full circle, careful to avoid stepping on Kaguya. Through some empty metal shelves, he spotted a far-off door opening while a black figure strode inside. "Takashi, you in here?" a man called out, his voice echoing briefly in the room.

"We haven't opened yet; who could that be at this hour?" the black-haired man mumbled as he darted about, dodging shelves and boxes until he reached the door. As soon as he laid eyes on a red-haired man with crimson irises, his face lit up in recognition. "Rekka, my good man! You're here awfully early!"

"Yeah, I know, but trust me, I got a damn good reason for that," the redhead replied, smiling. He rose a hand and made a 'come in' gesture, which caused the glasses-wearer to raise a brow an inch. Said brow shot higher as a blue-haired woman made her way inside, keeping close to Rekka. "Takashi, I'd like you to meet Koto. Long story short, she's now my friend and roommate," the Shot said simply.

Takashi eyed the woman, and she stared back for a moment. The man smiled and rose a hand to ruffle her hair. "Well met, miss," he beamed before retracting his hand and turning his attention back to the Volcanic Shot. "So, what brings you two here?" he asked.

"Ran out of food, got low on ammo; basically, the usual," Rekka answered, glancing at the blue-haired woman and smiling as she relaxed a bit. "Oh, Takashi, do you have any other weapon besides guns? Koto needs something to wield."

"Hrm?" Takashi hummed, his smile fading. He watched the red-eyed lad quizzically before venturing, "It sounds like there's an issue, and I'm lost. Mind filling me in?"

"I killed a mob boss named Matsuki, and now his entire gang wants my blood spilled on the concrete. Rekka shot a few that followed me, and they told him something about Matsuki's brother," Koto elaborated, grimacing for a moment.

Takashi's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. "M-Matsuki? You mean... Matsuki Wakizashi? Th-the leader of the Black Kitsune Mafia?" he asked, voice rising an octave higher. He paled as Koto glumly nodded. He took a moment to regain his composure and assumed a hard frown, "This is... this is serious. I'd read in the newspaper a few days ago that he was found brutally murdered with apparent stab wounds, and the police were unable to find his killer. The paper also said he had rotted to the point they could barely tell it was even him."

"Let's just say Koto kinda snapped and hauled ass after. She's been holed up in my place for the past three to four weeks since," Rekka sighed, frowning himself.

"In that case, food and other necessities are on the house for you two tonight. I'll get Kaguya up right away; come inside you two, and close the door behind yourselves," the man in the tank top sighed, darting off and weaving around shelves and boxes while the duo stepped further inside. The door groaned as if protesting while it closed, and the Shot and his companion followed Takashi in short order.

Within ten minutes, the trio reached the snoozing woman. Takashi knelt down and shook her awake, almost getting clocked as Kaguya trust her hand upward in a vehement slapping motion. "It's not even opening hour; what the fuck are you waking me up for?" the woman grumbled, sitting up and shooting the man a bloodshot glare, revealing a faded blue T-shirt on her torso. "You better have a good reason; another excuse out of you, and I swear I'll break your nose."

"There is a reason; a very good one, in fact. Rekka found a woman who is of... very peculiar interest of the potentially-leaderless Black Kitsune Mafia," Takashi replied in a serious tone. "She said she killed Matsuki Wakizashi, and his men have been on her tail since."

Kaguya blinked the drowsiness away, and her face hardened as she had done so. "You're shitting me," she hissed.

"He isn't; I killed Matsuki Wakizashi with a knife. I aimed for the throat first, and ran as he bled out," Koto piped up, instantly garnering the roused woman's attention.

Kaguya stood up, and dusted off a pair of pants she wore after rising to her feet before she began glaring at the blue-haired woman. "So, _you're_ an ex-member of the Black Kitsune Mafia?" she seethed.

"More like a bitch of the gang," Koto clarified, cringing as she spoke.

"There've been rumors flying around for the past few weeks about a blue-haired woman—one people have called the Raging Siren. Are you her?" Kaguya pressed on, eyes narrowing into slits. Her glare morphed into a scowl when the blue-eyed woman before her silently nodded, and she grabbed her by the throat as she hissed, "If you hurt Rekka intentionally, I swear I will have your head on a pike. _Do you understand?_ "

"I-I understand!" Koto squeaked, her form shaking. She made to grab the enraged lady's wrists to tug her hands from her throat, but before she could, Takashi stepped in and pushed them apart from one another.

 _"Please stop with the hostilities, we have enough problems to deal with!"_ the glasses-wearing man barked, glaring at Kaguya for all he was worth. The seething woman nodded and backed down with a flinch, and soon after, the rage on her face and in her eyes vanished to be replaced by mild annoyance. He turned to Koto and sighed, "Sincerest apologies. Kaguya's been on edge lately."

"I... I know the feeling all too well," the azure-haired woman replied with a nod.

"I guess the feeling's mutual," Rekka remarked, shooting Takashi a worried glance. "Are we gonna take the truck again? If so, then once of us is gonna have to sit with the crates; the cab can only fit three people tops."

"Unfortunately, because of your new roommate, we'll probably have to work out who sits where. The usual one food crate isn't going to cut it, now that there are two mouths to feed. That, and there's the problem with whatever weapon she chooses; it might also needs its own crate, alongside the ammunition. This is, of course, depending on what we have available," Takashi answered, shaking his head.

"Wait, how big are the food crates by themselves?" Koto piped up, her inquiry garnering a look from Rekka.

"About shin-high, twice as long as both of us standing side-by-side at the legs, and needs at least two people to carry them. And that's just one per crate," the Shot answered with a frown. "The ammunition crates are much smaller, thankfully, and I could take three of them in easy-breezy."

"You three keep chatting; I'll make sure the 'closed' sign is on the front door of the shop," Kaguya interjected, and with that, she made her way out of the storage room at a brisk pace.

"Why's she doing that?" Koto asked in a quiet voice, frowning.

Takashi's face hardened, and for a moment he was silent as the sounds of men faintly shouting and things slamming echoed into the room. "Someone might've seen you and is doing lord knows what with the intel. For all we know, if someone theoretically did see you out and about, they might be tattling to the Black Kitsune Mafia as we speak. Normally, we'd open shop after Rekka finishes whatever business he has here, but I get the feeling that it won't be the case tonight," he answered in a glum voice.

"For the past few weeks, me and Koto had the lingering feeling that someone's watching our every move. Have you been getting the same sense of creeping paranoia?" the Shot asked, worry flickering in his irises.

Takashi nodded. "So has Kaguya, for that matter. Why, she's had trouble sleeping as the weeks dragged on. Not only that, but lately we've been getting more patrons. Patrons affiliated with the Black Kitsunes, always asking if we've seen a certain woman. When we asked why they wanted the woman, they said she did something unforgivable and went no further than that," he answered, facing Rekka while keeping his eyes pointedly fixed on Koto.

As if on cue, Kaguya bustled back into the room and rejoined the conversation. "I've closed the metal shutters on all of the windows and thoroughly locked everything. The shop is effectively on lockdown," she said.

"Did you notice any suspicious activity outside?" the glasses-wearer asked, his visage easing up a bit.

"A lot. A whole group of men has lingered outside the entire time I closed the steel blinds, and they all had knives and guns and trucks. We'll need to move soon, if not immediately," Kaguya reported, assuming a hard frown.

"I guess we're packing heavy tonight. Rekka, show Koto any weaponry you can find, and make sure to get ammunition. Me and Kaguya will load the bed of the truck with food crates; let us know when you're ready to head for home," Takashi stated in a deadly serious tone.

"Isn't it dangerous? Aren't there trucks outside?" Koto asked, eyelids slanting.

The male shopkeeper set a hand on her shoulder and smiled wryly. "This storage room also doubles as our garage. As long as we stay in here, we're safe. The Black Kitsunes can't get in here, so long as we don't leave one door open," he answered. With that, he and his female co-worker walked deeper into the rows of crates and shelves and, after a moment, went out of sight.

"That way," Rekka began, pointing down a row of boxes and shelves opposite of where the shopkeepers had waltzed off. Koto nodded and went down the row, with the Shot soon falling in step behind her. Within a few minutes, they had come upon small boxes upon more small boxes, all labeled "ammunition." The man picked up three crates, all stacked on one another, with a small grin on his face.

"What's this?" Koto asked, picking up an object crafted of metal that rested on a shelf, one easily as long as her entire arm and painted a striking blue and purple.

The Shot turned to her and, upon seeing what she held, almost dropped the crates in wide-eyed shock. "By the gods, woman, you've found a big-ass boomerang. I doubt it could fly; hell, with those blue teeth on the violet, bowing shaft, I think you could use it like a golf club."

The woman hummed and experimentally thumped the bowing shaft of the peculiar weapon on herself a few times, eyes widening as it drummed hard on the palm of her hand. "Good thing it's sleek; if it were thicker, I doubt I could lift it," she remarked.

"I wonder how Takashi got his hands on the damn thing. That's a sweet weapon right there; are you sure you want it?" Rekka inquired, frowning as he waited for the answer to his question.

"Hmm..." Koto hummed again and lightly ran a finger across a tooth of the weapon, wincing as it sliced the tip in a shallow cut. "It can cut, too. I think I'll keep it."

"Good deal; follow me to the truck," the redhead sighed, but his blue-haired companion did not need to be told twice. They filed down the rows of crates, and after fifteen to twenty minutes of weaving around the clutter, the two heard the tell-tale sound of something wooden and heavy being placed on a thing of hollowed metal. Soon after that, they came upon the shopkeepers as they finished loading in a third crate in the bed of the truck, briefly glancing at bits of chipped paint on the tailgate's rim.

Takashi helped Rekka load the ammunition crates into the bed in a way the tailgate could effectively shield them from potential impact. Said tailgate got closed, and the Shot then hopped into the bed and sat in front of the large crates. "Say, where'd you get that sweet boomerang, by the way?" the redhead asked, and when Takashi looked at him with a quirked brow, he gestured to Koto.

"Oh, that thing. We found it at a yard sale some time ago, and we've had it since," Kaguya answered before her co-worker could open his mouth to speak. She jumped upon hearing the echoing sound of something crashing outside, shortly followed by a door slamming open, and paled as men started shouting in droves. "Shit, get in the truck now!"

Takashi ran to the driver's side of the cab and opened the door, digging into his pants pockets until he procured a set of keys and thrust them into the ignition switch. He climbed in and closed the door as soon as the passengers' side opened, with the women rushing in and closing their door in short order. All three hastily donned seatbelts before the key found itself twisted, the groan of an awakened engine hitting their ears as the shopkeeper shifted the gear of the truck and gripped the steering wheel.

"Hold tight; I'm going to drive through the garage door!" he ordered, whereupon his colleague shot him an exasperated and panicked look.

"Are you insane?! The vultures outside will notice!" she shrieked as the man slammed his foot onto the gas pedal.

"We've got insurance on the shop, and the garage door is very weak thanks to the buildup of rust! Besides, if we wait for the door to open—" he stopped upon hearing glass shattering from behind in tandem with a gunshot and winced as the front windshield shattered into a gazillion pieces, with shards nicking at his back and front the entire time. More gunshots rang out, with bullets whizzing over the truck and through the now-useless windshields of the cab, barely missing the driver and passengers. He shot a glance at the passengers and went on as he noticed both women ducking for cover, "—THAT will happen!"

The truck whirred to life and sped onward, ramming right into an aged garage door and tearing a massive hole in it with ease. It swerved violently into the street, almost sending Rekka straight out of the bed of the truck in the process. Speaking of, the Shot hissed angrily, "Hey, watch it!"

"I would, if those bastards didn't start firing!" Takashi retorted as the truck sped down a street. "Cover us, and hang on as best as you can! I'll see if I can outspeed them!"

"So long as they can't get a chance to hit us or you, it'll be fine!" Kaguya shrieked, still ducking down.

The truck turned onto another street, and another after that. Rekka groaned as a third corner got rounded by the pickup, seeing three more black trucks quickly catching up, all with men who stuck their heads out of windows and stood in the beds, each and every single one of them with a gun at the ready. He cocked his pistol, flicked off the safety, and let loose the bullets in the chamber, hitting a driver, two front tires, one hand, and a man. The driver of the truck he managed to shoot swerved into another pursuing vehicle, causing both to veer drastically off-course and ram headlong into a set of telephone poles.

As soon as two trucks were disabled by one bullet, three more swerved into the scene from other roads and immediately flanked the remaining one. The redhead dove for the ammunition crates as the pursuers returned the favor in the form of a hail of bullets that pinged off the road and tailgate as they swerved down more lanes. Fumbling for a bit, he opened a crate and hastily reloaded before poking his head out and firing back. He took out another driver and caused another wreck with one bullet, but at the speed the vehicle he was in had been going, the other five missed.

"Head for the highways! We can ditch the vultures there!" Kaguya barked, and Takashi responded by nodding and shifting his truck to the fastest gear he could. The white-beige truck gained more distance from the ebony vehicles, but not much, and the other trucks' drivers kept on firing off a storm of bullets.

"Which highway, woman?! At this rate, I'm pretty sure we already passed one!" Takashi yelled as a bullet from behind nicked his shoulder just as he turned the steering wheel a sharp right, causing the vehicle to veer onto a three-lane road.

"The one closest to Rekka's place! I think it's Tanuki Pass!" his colleague answered, turning her head to glance at the driver.

"Well, shit, I've found myself on the wrong side of the road!" the male shopkeeper hissed as he jerked the steering wheel left and right, dodging vehicles coming towards him and his group, narrowly missing head-on collisions and garnering a lot of frantic honks. He spotted an opportunity to change lanes at an intersection that lead to a highway and took it, turning the four-wheeler into the other side so sharply one side of the thing lifted off the pavement for the barest of instants before landing, jarring himself and the two women. The sable trucks tried to mimic the motion, but only two succeeded in avoiding becoming part of a wreck; one truck rolled three times, and the other slammed into its side and both skid into a wide alley.

"I didn't think I'd be part of a high-speed pursuit!" the brunette yelled, taking a chance to sit up and turn towards Rekka. "How many are there now?" she called.

"Just these two are left; I think I can take them! I'll let you know if more show up!" Rekka answered, reloading and firing off another stream of bullets. A growing sense of desperation welled up in him as he reloaded once more, and he made to fire before another car, this one a black van, joined the fray. Jutting out of the passenger window was a cloaked man sporting a partially-concealed weapon that he couldn't discern properly. He let loose projectiles of his own, hitting the drivers of the last two trucks with what seemed to be arrows, and with that the pursuing drivers immediately crashed their rides into other vehicles. Once this was said and done, the van pulled up next to the white-beige truck.

The lad in the passenger's seat, the Shot noticed, sported a hat that he tipped with one hand as he retracted back into the vehicle, briefly revealing a mass of brown hair. "We'll take it from here; the Black Kitsunes strayed into our turf. Head on home," the cloaked man called out. Rekka nodded and turned to the cab. 

"The people in the van will take it from here! Put the pedal to the metal and let's get the fuck out of this mess!" he cried. Takashi grinned and drove on, taking a moment to wave at the van's driver just before he the truck swerved down another lane. Within moments, and after more corners were turned, a familiar and empty street came into view. The battered vehicle slowed to a stop next to the apartment, and silence reigned as the engine got shut off and everyone stilled, trying to regain their breath.

Koto slowly sat up, groaning. "Ugh, I think I'm gonna be sick," she complained in a weak voice.

"Let's get out of the truck, then; no good use can come out of sitting on shards of glass," Takashi concurred, opening the door and undoing his seatbelt before stepping out. The women did likewise, and as soon as her feet touched the pavement, Koto sprinted over to the nearest trash can and started to violently puke into it.

Rekka jumped out of the bed of the truck, eyes fixed on the blue-haired woman as she proceeded to empty her stomach. "Maybe we should take five before unloading the goods," he said, shooting Kaguya a glance as he spoke.

"Perhaps. But we'll still need to unload as quickly as we can; with the chaos that's happened literally five minutes ago, the cops will be all over the place. We'll have to put this truck elsewhere," the shopkeeper replied in a low, cold tone. She met the Shot's gaze and sent him a warm smile, "Thanks for keeping our asses safe. You did good out there, even considering Takashi's insane driving skills."

"I... think I'm okay now," Koto burbled as she turned away from the trash can, a slight shade of verdant painting her face. "Do we start unloading now?"

Kaguya nodded as she turned back to the other woman. "You handle the ammunition and boomerang; me and Rekka will unload the heavier crates," she answered.

"Where do we put them?" the blue-haired woman groaned.

"In the hall. We'll move them upstairs tomorrow," the brunette answered. Her smile fell as sirens blared in the distance.

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"We have bread, cans of soup, snack cakes..." Takashi went on as he and Rekka hauled in a food crate towards the den. In a corner lay five emptied crates that they passed as they entered another room next to the staircase. "And then there's the oils, and the fish..." he rambled further until another voice chimed in.

"And a partridge in a pear tree," Rekka quipped as the crate was set onto the floor and pried open. He eyed the contents of the box and smiled as he grabbed two cans of soup. Stashing those in the cupboards, he went back and retrieved more goods to put up. In moments, the shelves were filled adequately; enough to feed four people for a good two months at the least.

The two men nodded to themselves and returned to the living room to find Kaguya flopped on the couch, and Koto leaning against a wall looking at them expectantly. "Everything put up?" she asked.

"Yeah. And Koto, could you see me upstairs for a few?" Rekka replied, his smile fading. The azure-haired woman nodded and rushed up the stairs, with the redhead following suit, leaving the shopkeepers in the living room. As soon as the door to the bedroom closed behind him, the Shot sighed deeply before starting, "You told me yesterday that your pops was a mob boss, right? Do you know his name?"

"Not the one his mom gave him, no. I only know what his men called him, but it may have changed after I was sold off eleven years ago," the woman answered, shaking her head. "Why do you ask?"

"He might have ties to the Black Kitsunes since, well, you murdered their boss. I'm saying _his_ men could start showing up any day now, and I'd like to know whatever information you have on the prick so that we can avoid tangling with him as much as possible," the Shot replied in a solemn voice. His visage and tone tightened as he then asked, "What did his men call him?"

"They called him the Split-mouth Oni," she replied in a tone so low it could've been mistaken for a whisper.

Instantly, Rekka felt his mouth drying out and the color drained from his face. His eyes widened, yet his irises and pupils dilated. "The... Split-mouth Oni? You mean... THE Split-mouth Oni? The dude who's wanted for cutting up countless women and supposedly has the largest prostitution empire in years?" he murmured in a hoarse voice.

Koto glumly nodded. "He... wanted to cut up my face, but then didn't go through with it. Something about how men hated bitches with split mouths," she answered.

"Oh... oh _shit. Oh shit,_ " Rekka burbled, a spark of fear igniting in his eyes. He rushed towards the woman and gripped her shoulders, a panicked look on his face as he continued, "If he finds out Matsuki's been killed, **and** became friends with him at some point, **we're fucked.** "

"But Takashi said the cops didn't know that I was the killer. As long as we lay low, we shouldn't have a problem with him," Koto retorted, frowning. "As long as remnants of the Black Kitsunes run amok, there's a chance they could contact him if he does show up."

"And that's an issue we'll have to get rid of as soon as possible," Rekka groaned, his head dropping. "Yet we don't know how many of the bastards are left, or whether or not they've gotten a hold of him and gave him wind of the mess already."

"Good point, though there's always the chance they couldn't reach him," the woman sighed, a fragile hope resonating amidst the rampant worry in her tone.

Rekka rose his head and looked her in the eyes. "One can hope," he replied and let off a heavy sigh. He relinquished his hold on her shoulders and darted out of the room and down the stairs, catching the attention of the shopkeepers as he made his hasty entrance into the living room. "We got a huge problem, and it's worse than Matsuki's men."


	4. Chapter IV- Dark Alley

"The WHO?" Kaguya shrieked, sitting up on the couch. Strands of her brown hair flew wide and some frazzled on their own accord as she stared half-blankly at Rekka. She stood up, lips quivering as she asked, "You're... you're shitting me, right?"

The Shot shook his head. "Koto was really serious about him being her dad. She even said he'd considered hacking her face before going 'fuck it' and throwing her into the prostitution business," he replied, his voice tight. "What's worse is that he may be connected with the Black Kitsunes, and may have already contacted what's left of the gang to check up on Matsuki. In short, we're in a very bad pickle right now."

"It's a good thing we left the shop last night, then. I heard the Oni has people that keep him up-to-date on all of the lesser gangs and their dealings," Takashi spoke, eyes narrowed to slits. "As long as we lay low, we should be fine... but I don't know for how long we have to keep out of sight until we'll have to forage again. That man is one mob boss not even the fucking elites would lay a hand on."

"So, he probably already knows about Koto, and may have figured out she's the likeliest suspect in Matsuki's murder. Well, isn't this just grand?" Rekka scoffed in a sarcastic tone as he threw his hands into the air, punctuating his remark with a heavy sigh before dropping his arms.

"Which instantly lands the rest of us in the frying pan. He could be sending men out right this minute to collect more information," Kaguya groaned, her voice agitated but her eyes betraying a sincere and primal spark of fear.

"Unless a Black Kitsune hung around your alleys and called the rest of the mob in just after me and Koto entered the shop, he won't be getting much in the way of our whereabouts," Rekka retorted, shaking his head.

"Now that I dwell on it, that's probably why I saw their trucks hanging around the road outside as I initiated the lockdown," the female shopkeeper sighed despondently, sitting back down on the couch. "But then again, who were the people in the van that showed up just as we reached the pass?"

"Most likely members of the Stone Tanukis," Takashi answered, frowning deeply.

"Stone Tanukis? You mean, the rival gang of the Black Kitsunes?" Kaguya asked, looking at her co-worker with a quizzical brow raised.

Rekka made to speak, "Yeah. We're on the edge of their turf. The man in the van last night told me the Kitsunes followed us all the way into their neck of the woods."

"You sound like you know them," Takashi noted, turning to the Shot with a smile adorning his face.

Rekka smiled back and replied, "Hardly. They asked me to join their gang once, since they didn't have a gun expert with them, but I turned them down. Told them I wasn't interested."

"Maybe the Tanukis finally killed the Kitsunes, but now THEY'RE probably in the frying pan too!" Kaguya interjected, standing up again. "For all we know, the mob from last night may have been the last of the Kitsune Mafia!"

"Not the first gang to get wiped off the face of the planet. There're so many gangs the Oni might not give two shits, despite the fact his daughter's caught in this mess. Did not even care about his own kid, so I heard," the Shot retorted again, his smile fading. "But you're right, Kaguya. If the Oni **does** happen to give two shits and a fuck about what went on in the last few weeks, then we're not the only ones he'll be wanting to bring the damn apocalypse upon."

"We'll need to establish daily vigils at this rate, which is going to be bad regardless of who takes watch on what day," Takashi began, frowning deeply. "Rekka, you only have so much ammo to work with; sure, you're stocked _now,_ but eventually you're going to run out of bullets to fire. Kaguya and I have little to no fighting experience, and I am going to go on a guess and assume the same is true for Koto. All in all, the odds are stacked against us, and it doesn't help that the cops are another factor that needs careful consideration."

"The cops... whoo boy, I can see them going up against the Big Kuchisake and his lot. And failing miserably," the redhead sighed, nodding. "But if the cops go after the Kitsunes, if any are left, that'll clear up a small amount of our problems. If they avoid the Tanukis, even better. But, we're still going to have to have someone on watch, and I'll fucking volunteer for that shit."

Kaguya's eyes went wide. "Wait, you're going to keep watch?" she asked.

The Volcanic Shot nodded. "I'm the only one who has a fighting chance out there; I know my way around these streets, and I can easily weasel out of a mess before it gets too big. If I can't, I have my trusty pistol," he stated in a flat voice, his visage expressionless. "I know it's risky as hell out there, so we won't establish the whole watch gig right yet. Let's give things another week to settle down, and hopefully it should be quiet by then."

"Sounds like a plan," Kaguya concurred, nodding as her face softened a bit. Her eyes averted towards the stairs, before the rest of her face followed suit. "Anyone else hear... moaning?"

"Who in hell would have any reason to moan?" Rekka asked, a brow shooting straight up to his hairline.

"Maybe someone outside the building stubbed their toe or something," Takashi suggested, shrugging his shoulders.

Kaguya snapped, "If that was the case, then I wouldn't have heard it just now. It sounded close—both of you, shut up and listen." The two complied with her order, and for a moment, only complete silence reigned. Rekka had opened his mouth to speak again when, at last, the sound of a young woman moaning hit the ears of the three in the living room. When the sound persisted, he whipped his head towards the flight of stairs and gaped.

"What is she DOING up there?!" the Shot screamed as he blazed up the flight in a frenzy, opening the door to find Koto clutching her healing shoulder as she staggered up onto her feet from the floor. He sighed in relief upon seeing her and asked, "Your shoulder hurting again?"

"Just tripped and landed the wrong way. I'll be fine," the blue-haired woman replied in a pained voice. "Any idea on what we should do for the next week or so?"

"We're staying put until some of the chaos dies down, and after that, I'll be taking up daily vigil again. Say, wanna come back downstairs? You've been up here a while," Rekka sighed, a small smile curling his lips a bit.

"I was about to make my way downstairs, actually, but then I tripped," Koto answered, assuming a wide grin. The man nodded in understanding, and the two went downstairs to find the shopkeepers both sitting on the couch.

"What happened up there? Did she try to do the one-handed serenade?" Kaguya quipped, grinning as Koto stood there spluttering while a blush cropped up on her face.

Rekka groaned, rose a hand before slamming the palm into his forehead, and replied in an exasperated tone, "No, Kaguya. She tripped and hurt herself."

"I'm just joshing you two," the female shopkeeper stated in a playful tone, still grinning. Her co-worker shot her a look, his glasses catching a faint light that caused them to gleam.

"What business is someone else pleasuring themselves to you? Or are you just looking for mundane reasons to get a little laugh?" Takashi asked, his tone dark. Instantly, the woman who sat next to him on the couch silenced herself, and her smile faded on the spot.

"Alright you two, calm down. We got enough issues to deal with, and I'd rather not have to engage in a fistfight over it," Rekka snorted, shaking his head.

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Another two weeks flew by, and things had fallen deathly silent outside of the street of Rekka's den—and in the rest of the city, for that matter. Both he and Koto rounded a corner into an alley in a slow, near-quiet gait with vexed looks on their faces, gun and boomerang at the ready. Quite a ways behind them and stranded in the middle of a series of dead-end alleys, some men clad in blue uniforms shouted out, "Where'd they go?" The cries did not concern the two, however, and they kept going. As they rounded the bend, both briefly paused and peered into a bar, looking at various burly and fat patrons through the windows, shuddering as they got smashed and took a few scantily-clad girls to the back of the building. 

Koto looked on, noticing a blur of pale and violet dart past the feet of a few men, causing them to curse and scramble in all directions. Some of the men toppled over themselves, trying to catch the object or person that was moving, and quite obviously failing at it. Rekka grabbed her shoulder and lightly tugged, and the two continued into the alley before any of the patrons inside could see them. They went down a few more alleys after that, which took but a few minutes.

A breeze blew as they turned down a corner, carrying a paper with it, and the redhead snatched it out of the air to read it. The headline read **'Stone Tanukis Wiped Out,'** complete with a bleak scene of many corpses strewn about into one room, with each and every single body he could see sporting a twisted split grin and what looked to be a horned demon carved into their flesh. 

He tossed the paper over his shoulder with a scoff and a brief shudder, moving on and hearing the voices behind him and his friend continuing to shout. "We could've arrested them, but _noooo,_ you had to slack off!" one masculine voice cried, and the Shot chortled at the overtly irate tone that the shouter in question had.

"But I didn't slack off! The Shot's got a friend with a boomerang, and she knocked me out and busted my damn tires!" another voice, also male, exclaimed defensively.

"We can repair your tires later! Right now, we got rodents to catch for our chief investigator!" the first voice yelled, though at this point it was little more than a fading echo. Rekka and Koto went down a few more alleys and blocks, before they paused again in a narrow walkway lined with trash cans and dumpsters. The woman looked to the sky and frowned as dark clouds hung overhead, which got all that much worse as a bolt of brilliant violet lightning arced across the sky and struck a transformer tower some distance away. This wound up causing all of the streetlights and other electrical appliances in the area to cease working on the spot, and the two took a moment to let their eyes adjust to the sable.

"I'm not sure if our new cover of darkness is a good thing, or a bad thing," she mumbled as she walked, garnering a look from the Shot in the process.

"Let's just keep low and use the lack of light to our advantage; the cops don't know we're prancing here because they're too busy hanging around in a bunch of different places," he replied in a calm tone.

"True, true," Koto sighed as she nodded in agreement. She paused, still hearing some more men shouting in the distance, noting that the sounds seemed to get louder. She shrugged and continued on when the yodeling faded away into the night. "Still, why are they hanging around that bar three blocks down? Isn't that the turf of another gang?"

"Don't know, and don't particularly care. We gotta get back home as soon as possible," the redhead replied in a huff. He groaned, rubbing the back of his head angrily. "Shit, which way was it again...?" he cursed, garnering an impatient sigh from his companion. A few moments passed as they kept walking, though as they rounded into another alley from an empty street, he paused and paled upon seeing a sign reading **'You are now leaving Aokigahara Trail.'** He reached out to grab the blue-haired woman by the shoulder, causing her to stop as well. "Look at the sign, and listen..." he whispered harshly, and his companion nodded before turning to the sign and likewise blanching. Time felt like it had started going still as a brief silence settled in.

Five sets of footsteps echoed very close by. Then, it became ten. The steps grew louder and louder until, inexplicably, they halted and another silence came. The silence broke after another minute lingered, thanks to a gruff male voice speaking up from directly behind the two, "We know ya got that little Siren bitch with ya; hand her over and we'll let ya live, red boy."

Both the Shot's and the Siren's eyes went wide, and they exchanged one glance before running down the alley they'd turned into. For a split-second, a streetlamp they'd passed turned on overhead, causing spots to appear in their vision as they re-entered the darkness. Blundering into another alley, the two began sweating as the footsteps from behind came all the more closer, thundering and thundering through the bleak world like a wildebeest stampede.

Rounding another alley, the duo skid to a halt as a brick wall greeted them. Rekka whirled around and cocked his pistol as some of the pursuers came into view, forming a nigh-impenetrable wall of barely-visible muscle and bulk. He fired one bullet after another, toppling four of the brutes and causing a fifth to lean against a wall. Darting past the groaning mess, the man and woman turned down another corner, running even faster as they heard the weakened man raising as loud a fuss as he could muster.

"The red boy and the bitch went that way!" they heard him shout, "Fucker shot me right in the kneecaps!"

"Shit, I should've aimed for his head or something," Rekka cursed as another corner was rounded. A few more dark alleys whizzed by as they fled deeper and deeper, before a dead end prevented him and Koto from going any further. The woman ran about in a frenzy, going into other avenues before coming straight back.

"We're blocked off by walls on all sides; only way out's the way we came in," she whimpered, eyes gleaming with panic. She whirled around and clutched one end of her weapon like it was a golf club, before one of her wrists got grabbed by her companion.

"Anything we can hide in?" he asked in a whisper.

"I found a few dumpsters," the woman replied in a hushed tone. "Closest one's that way," she added, using the boomerang to gesture to a corner on the left. Nodding, Rekka ran down to that avenue, dragging the woman with.

A few dumpsters littered this street corridor, but they were so cramped together they had formed a barricade of sorts a few inches from the brick wall behind them. Together, the duo climbed over and landed on the other side as soundlessly as they could, crouching on the ground as more men shouting echoed into their hiding space from outside.

"I don't see the boy or the cunt," one cursed as footsteps began echoing in tandem with the voices.

"Perhaps they ditched us. I heard the redhead's as skinny as the whores at the bar," another hissed.

"Maybe they're still here. If they are here, then we can fuck both of them up before bringing them to the boss," a third suggested in a snide voice.

"How do ya wanna fuck up the redhead, though? Not much ya can do to a man," another retorted as the footsteps came even closer.

"Simple: we treat him like we treat the whores; pull his pants down and make him take it aaaall up the ass," a fifth replied before laughing, his remark causing both the Shot and the Siren to immediately pale.

"Heh, if he's as skinny as a whore, then maybe he can be a whore!" a sixth remarked. "Alright boys, let's split and search for the pricks. Shock them with your tasers if you see them!" With that, some of the footsteps retreated back, while another set came despairingly close to the dumpsters before turning away again. "Nothing here!"

"Nothing in this end, either," another called back.

"Shit, looks like the red boy and the blue bitch gave us the slip. First a cunt with a tramp stamp leaves our bar, and now we miss two more targets. What the fuck is next?" yet another cursed as the rest of the footsteps, finally, retreated, fading into distant echoes. Once the sounds of feet hitting concrete had gone away entirely, they were replaced by another sound: the sound of men distantly screaming in pain. "Fuck! It's the Landslide!" this same voice yelled out a minute after the cries of agony started.

"Of the Sto—" another voice didn't get the chance to finish before it died out in a pained, almost bestial wail.

Rekka hauled himself to his feet before pulling Koto up. "Let's go, while the assholes are distracted," he said simply before making to climb over the dumpsters. The woman followed him, and they made out of the dead ends like bats from hell. From there, they stumbled into another avenue that had gotten littered with corpses, some wearing conspicuous blue suits and hats, and all adorned with more crossbow bolts.

"I think our crossbow person came through here," Koto remarked, gesturing to the bolts.

"Maybe they knew we were in trouble. They've got a lot of explaining to do if we manage to run into them tonight," Rekka replied as they darted down another alley. The two kept running, and their lungs began burning from abuse of oxygen and adrenaline. The duo slowed, just as they ran into another dead end after a few moments, with one putting his hands on his knees and the other resting her hand on the wall.

"F-fuck. I-I think we're l-lost," the Siren wheezed, panting between breaths. She tensed as more footsteps came from outside the dead end, and gaped as she dared to look towards the entrance.

More men rounded the corner, around seven burly brutes, effectively cutting off all means of escape. The Shot scowled and rose his pistol before pulling the trigger, but all that came was a simple clicking noise. His eyes widened, and he pulled the trigger again and again, yet all the pistol procured had been nothing more than a series of clicks. "Shit. Shit. Shit. I'm out of bullets," he mumbled as he loaded the pistol into his holster.

"Oh, look, it's the rats we're looking for," one brute began with a laugh.

"And the red boy's out of fire power," another chortled as he popped his neck and cracked his knuckles.

"Look, the bitch has a boomerang! We can take both of them easy-peasy!" a third exclaimed, stepping before the others.

Another started to advance, causing the two to flinch back as the sound of a fly unzipping filled the alley. "Which one of ya wants to go first?" he taunted as he reached into his pants.

"Koto, can I borrow your boomerang for a few?" Rekka asked in a panicked tone, glancing at his companion. He heard a set of running footsteps, someone skidding to a halt, and then a brief silence as another one of the pursuers silently stepped forward and turned on a flashlight whose bulb burnt out in seconds.

"That won't be necessary," a new voice spoke just before the sound of something firing echoed from outside. One of the burly men further back screamed, almost entirely drowning out a dull thrum in the process. The others turned to the entrance, only to fall backwards like dominoes—one after the other. When the last brute had toppled over just seconds later, the Shot and Siren could see a darker-than-black shadow standing behind the bodies, and more crossbow bolts sticking out of said bodies like porcupine quills.

As well as something pointing right at them from what the two presumed was the hand of this mysterious figure. Just as the entity took a step forward, an overhead pair of streetlamps illuminated the scene, revealing that the deceased pursuers had more blue outfits on them, and some with badges on their forearms. The black creature was, in fact, a cloaked man sporting a hat that kept his head down. In a hand covered by a black glove, glimmering with a golden sheen, was an automatic crossbow trained right on them.

"Who are you?" Rekka growled before his pupils shrank as the figure pulled off the hat with the other hand that also had a glove on it, unveiling a mass of brown and messy hair on his head. "You... you're the man who was in that van..."

"I see you remember me well," the figure replied, lowering the crossbow and simultaneously raising his head up, revealing a brown left eye hidden behind a single-piece eyeglass and a large eyepatch that concealed the right side of his pale face. His mouth quirked into a smile as he put the hat back on, again shadowing his visage from the lights above.

The Shot had begun scowling again. "Were you the person who left that crossbow bolt at my doorstep?" he hissed.

"Yes. I've watched you for quite some time..." the cloaked man trailed off as his smile widened. "Rekka, wasn't it?"

The redhead flinched, his irises shrinking until they and his pupils were naught but pinpricks. "Why'd you leave the bolt at my doorstep? To threaten us?" he questioned, his inquiry causing the crossbowman to frown.

"To try to shoo you away. This place isn't safe, especially since you have the Kuchisake Oni's daughter standing right next to you. The men I just killed answered to that prick," the cloaked person replied, shaking his head.

"But, isn't it dangerous for you too?" Koto piped up, garnering a look from the man on the other side of the alley.

"Beyond dangerous. The Oni's men managed to almost completely wipe out the Stone Tanukis a few days ago, and I'm one of the last three stragglers," the crossbowman answered in a glum voice. "The Kuchisake's gang are scouring the whole damn city up and down for you, and they won't rest until you're dead."

Rekka's eyes went wider and wider as the man went on, "Not only that, but they want anyone who hides her to die as well. Naturally, Rekka, that means _you._ This is why I left the bolt; to try to get you two out of town before the Onis showed up. But, since the brutes have cornered you before I came along, that probably won't be possible anymore."

"We're... trapped in the city now?" Koto asked in a worried tone as the fear welled up in her eyes.

The crossbowman nodded glumly. He made to speak, but the Shot cut him off before he had the chance to begin, "How in hell do you know my name?"

"One, I watched you for some time, and two, I overheard one of your chit-chats with your friend over there and managed to get your name," the cloaked person replied after a few tense moments passed. He assumed a hard frown, "We can't stand here quibbling any longer; my home is no longer safe, we're walking in dangerous territory, and you two need to beat a hasty retreat. I still have a van we can use; just keep to the back seat and we'll further discuss the situation at your place."

Another few tense moments passed as Rekka eyed the man warily. "So, you're one of the... Stone Tanukis?" he asked after another moment of hesitation.

"Yes; in fact, I was the boss." Rekka spluttered for a moment as the figure had uttered the remark. The crossbowman continued on, ignoring the Shot's attempt to speak coherently, "I managed to get the last two stragglers holed up at your house before I tailed you both. I'm impressed you managed to get all the way past the Tsuki's Delight on foot." The cloaked man sighed as he turned around. "We mustn't stall any longer."

"Where's the van?" Koto questioned as the man glanced over his shoulder.

"Outside the alleys; follow me," came the reply.

The Shot and the Siren exchanged a glance before running after the Tanuki. They rounded a corner and spotted him sprinting down on their right, and went down in the same direction as more men began shouting in the distance.


	5. Chapter V- Scars In The Clay

A black van wheeled down a highway, and from within Rekka and Koto sat in the back, watching as unfamiliar landmarks and buildings passed by in blurs. "So, we strayed all the way out there..." the redhead mumbled, "I can't believe we were right on the damn path to Aokigahara Trail."

"Which was, might I add, _suicidal,_ " the cloaked man behind the wheel of the vehicle chided as he turned the wheel and caused the van to swerve onto another road. He went on, "That's the turf of the damn Kuchisake himself."

Koto shuddered as the words sank in. "And we're..." she trailed off.

"Yes, we're slipping away from his territory right now. I reckon you two were near the heart of his land, which is why so many bastards jumped you both. Whatever you do, if you do decide to venture that far out again, stay away from the Tsuki's Delight. If you see that bar, turn tail as soon as you are able," the driver warned as the vehicle went down another road.

Koto nodded silently and gave Rekka a worried look. The redhead sighed and his gaze fell to the floorboard. "I didn't know we were gonna end up in his turf," he groaned.

"So, why'd you two stray out here?" the cloaked man asked as the vehicle glided down another road.

"We got hounded here, by both cops and brutes," Rekka replied in a solemn tone. "I almost thought they started working together, chasing us into unfamiliar woods just so we could accidentally dig our own grave that much deeper."

"The fact the cops managed to spot you is worrying by itself. But the Kuchisake's men and the police _working in tandem?_ The Seven Gods of Luck really must hate you for that to happen," the driver groaned, assuming a hard frown as the sun started to come up from the east, hitting his left eye with its light. The eye squinted a bit, nearly narrowing into a slit, as the van continued on its merry way down the road before turning sharply to the west.

A good two hours of silence passed, and more roads got crossed. Koto peered out of a window and sharply gasped, and the sound was echoed by Rekka as he did the same. "Um, isn't that Takashi's shop?" the woman asked as a destroyed, black building came into view.

"Used to be; the Onis looted everything and then burnt it to the ground," the driver sighed as the van rolled past the wreckage. "It's another reason I visited your place; to tell the owners that the Onis were watching for their asses, too, so they could skewer them on halberds."

"Fuck, they really _are_ scouring the whole damn city for Koto..." the Shot groaned before glancing back up towards the cloaked man. "How'd you find out they wanted us dead?"

"A man who got crippled in the knees by bullets told me as soon as I disabled his arms with my crossbow," the driver replied with a snort. "And then I finished him off once he spilled the beans. He even told me the direction in which you two had wandered off."

Koto yawned. "Dammit, my body's aching all over now," she moaned as her eyelids started to droop.

Rekka found himself echoing the yawn. "Shit, you're right... now I hurt a bunch," he murmured, rubbing an eye with a hand.

"You two sound like you withstood having wasabi paste rubbed all over your crotches and washed off after a good thirty minutes," the driver remarked, smiling. "Fortunately, you two are almost home."

"Really? That's good; at least I won't have to flop here," the Shot replied, smiling faintly in spite of the exhaustion settling in.

"Ditto," Koto conceded with a sluggish nod.

"Feel free to take a catnap if you want; just warning you now that if you do, I'll have to wake you up when we reach our destination," the Tanuki stated, his smile widening.

"How long until—" Koto began, but paused to yawn again mid-response, "—until we get home?"

"About... another two hours," the driver replied. The vehicle stopped behind a stop sign, and he turned to shoot a brief glance at Rekka as the gunman made a sound between a choke and a gasp. "I'm taking a different route to your place; whatever path you had taken during the scuffle with the Kitsunes is on heavy police patrol, and last thing we need is to be pulled over."

The redhead nodded in understanding, but his eyes flickered glumly. "Then again, I wasn't the one driving the truck. Take that up with Takashi," he huffed indignantly.

The Tanuki nodded back as the vehicle started anew and went down another road. "Duly noted," he said simply.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

"Mm..." Koto moaned, her face tightening as she slept. After she relaxed, her eyes blinked open, and a familiar darkness greeted her. She languidly sat up, turned towards the door to the room and rubbed her eyes with a hand as her vision adjusted to the darkness. In front of the door stood the cloaked man, almost invisible at first glance.

"Sleep well?" the man asked in an amused tone.

"Yeah," the woman replied, nodding her head. "Thanks for saving us last night."

"Don't mention it," the cloaked man replied, laughing for a moment. His laughter died as he added, "I checked this building inside out while you were snoozing. It needs... embellishments; in fact, I'm impressed it still has running electricity and water."

The blue-haired woman flinched as she felt a hand not her own fling itself onto her left breast. Her eyes went wide, and she jerked her gaze towards Rekka as he mumbled something unintelligible. Koto grabbed the hand and set it next to his head before scrambling out of the bed, a raging blush on her face that the darkness had the courtesy to hide.

The Tanuki laughed again. "Now that's something I don't see every day," he chimed, smiling as the flustered woman shot him a questioning glance. He elaborated just as her mouth cracked open, "A woman who's been a prostitute rejecting a man's touch on a very private place."

"He... doesn't like being touched. I don't want to see how he'd react if he woke up with his hand on my tit," Koto replied in a quiet voice. "He might think I put his hand on myself while he was asleep..."

The cloaked man's smile instantly faded. "Lemme guess: he went off on you?"

The woman nodded silently. "After I jumped him," she added.

"I think I understand." The man in the dark garb nodded, sighing heavily. "Alright... how old are you?"

"Eighteen," Koto answered, fidgeting in place.

The Tanuki's eye widened. _"Eighteen?"_ he parroted in a higher-pitched voice. "When'd you become a hooker?"

"When I was seven," came the reply.

"Oh, for fuck's sake... how am I gonna explain this to you..." the cloaked man groaned, slumping against the door as his shaking head dropped. He lifted his head again and met her gaze impassively, "Listen, you don't get what you want in the way of sex by jumping on people, unless they specifically say that they want you to jump them, alright?"

"I... kinda already found that out the hard way," Koto mumbled, still fidgeting.

"I see that," the Tanuki remarked, drawing a heavy sigh. He fixed a level look on the Siren as he went on, "Though, I have to admit: I'm impressed that a man you didn't know until this whole mess started was the first to reject you in a way the message got through to you. If fucking Matsuki didn't treat you worse than the dirt beneath his feet..." he trailed off, murmuring unintelligibly.

"You knew Matsuki?" Koto questioned in a worried tone.

"He was my idiot brother. His gang and mine were fighting a lot, and the tangle before the last one... well, I was honestly surprised to find that someone already slit his throat and left him for dead. The prick still tried to breathe, so I finished him off by adding more holes into his body by way of crossbow bolts," the Tanuki replied in a cold tone, watching impassively as the Siren's eyes went wide.

"You... M-Matsuki...?" Koto spluttered, eyeing the man with quivering lips as the dots connected in her head.

"Sadly, yes, we were siblings. I know how it feels to be treated like shit by someone you think you're supposed to trust," the man answered with a sharp nod. "It's another reason I helped you two out: to repay you for unwittingly helping me finish off Matsuki. I cannot possibly thank you enough for stopping the Black Kitsunes and their reign of terror, but now that they're gone, the Onis are hunting us down. Oh well; no use crying over spilt milk."

"Are you saying that... whoever else that could've taken down the Black Kitsunes would be under the Kuchisake's crosshairs?" the Siren inquired after a few moments of hesitation.

"Yeah. Hell, if it was the President of the United States or the King of England that have taken down the Kitsunes, I'm pretty positive the Oni would be itching to fuck their shit up, too," the cloaked man groaned, again nodding. "As well as any who get in his way, for that matter. He is a mob boss to be feared; even the bravest and strongest of the elite police squads would be called foolish for thinking about apprehending his ass."

"What's this about England?" Rekka groaned as he sat up, his red hair draped very loosely over his shoulders. He blinked groggily before noticing the Tanuki staring at him.

"I was just having a chat with your friend," the cloaked figure replied flatly. He paused as someone began rapping on the door from the other side.

"Tenmei? Are they awake yet? We made them dinner," an unfamiliar, high-pitched woman's voice called from the other side.

"Yes, Mimi, they're up. I'll let them down shortly," the man replied, smiling as the person behind the door giggled. Retreating beats that faded indicated that whoever it was had left. He turned to the two and his smile widened, "That was one of the stragglers I mentioned last night. She and her twin sis helped defend the fort while I went to fetch you two."

Koto's brow shot high as the man spoke. "Wait, the other two Tanukis can fight?" she asked.

"Yes. Both can hold their ground pretty well," the figure replied, still beaming as he turned around and opened the door, making a gesture for the duo to follow him. "Two more fighters is better than none." With that, he made his exit out of the room, and so did the Shot and the Siren after they exchanged another glance.

They entered the living room to find the coffee table adorned with bowls full of steaming foodstuffs, as well as a bowl of cooked rice in the middle of it all. The shopkeepers sat down on one end of the table, and two unfamiliar women—one with black hair and red-pink eyes, and the other with lilac hair and irises—in nothing more than bikinis sat on the other.

"I see the small table's piled high tonight," the cloaked man laughed as the unfamiliar women eyed him with wide grins on their faces. He moved to sit between the scantily-clad and the shopkeepers, removing his hat and placing it in his lap after. Rekka and Koto sat on the couch, eyeing the two bikini-wearers for a moment.

"No, they're not prostitutes, though they certainly look the part," the brown-haired man spoke, garnering the attention of the red-haired lad and blue-haired woman. He sent them another smile and carefully picked up a bowl of spring roll sushi and some chopsticks.

Rekka picked up a bowl of soup and grinned after using a spoon to scoop some onto his mouth. He kept silent as he ate, listening intently as the others around him chattered. Koto rambled with the scantily-clad girls about their choice in weaponry, Takashi jabbered with the crossbowman in an attempt to learn more about his relationship with the two stragglers, and Kaguya occasionally chimed in to deliver a snide remark that had everyone laughing with varying degrees of success.

Everyone except the Shot, that is. He continued to eat his fill, tuning out most of the conversation and making mental notes of bits and pieces. It wasn't until the bowls were polished off and put somewhere in the kitchen did he finally speak up, crimson gaze affixed onto the man with the eyepatch, "Alright... your name's Tenmei, right? Whatever happened to the right side of your face, anyway? Why the large eyepatch?"

As soon as he spoke, the room fell silent. Tenmei sat there, assuming an unreadable look, eyeglass glinting as he stared back unblinkingly. "You'd like to know?" he asked in a slightly bitter tone, his eye betraying a spark of some kind of emotion which Rekka could not identify. "I'd rather you didn't."

The redhead leaned closer, maintaining an unblinking stare of his own. The staring contest continued as he murmured, "Koto's already told me some... very unsettling bits of her life. Surely, yours couldn't be any worse."

Tenmei quirked a small smile at that. "She informed me as well, during our chit-chat earlier," he replied in an amused tone before it fell in tandem with his grin. "While you do certainly have a valid point, I'd have to say I had it just as bad as she did; albeit in a different way."

"How so?" the Shot asked, a brow quirking up.

"Well, since you asked about my eyepatch, maybe I'd have to show you what I speak of," the Tanuki replied in a dull tone, raising one hand and effortlessly lifting the cloth from his face. In doing so, he slightly flinched, watching as the redhead's eyes went wide. The right side of his face had caved inward at some point, but not enough to drastically alter the rest of his visage. The eye socket, where the caving was most prominent, had been seemingly patched over by many different blotches of skin. Each and every different fragment had been seamlessly bound in place with old stitches like a crude jigsaw puzzle.

"Holy shit, dude... you're half _blind?_ " Rekka whimpered, swallowing thickly.

"And irreparably scarred, no less," Tenmei huffed as he put the eyepatch back onto his face, over his scarred socket. "My brother... pushed me down a cliff. He and his whole gang laughed as the rocks battered me on my way down. I barely survived the fall," he explained quietly.

Koto spoke up after drawing a shuddering breath, "Damn... you must've been incredibly lucky to live a tumble off a cliff."

"Oh, it gets better," Tenmei replied in a mock-amusement tone, "because they set up bombs on that whole rock face and made them explode. Lots of rocks and boulders dislodged, and I found myself tumbling in a damn landslide. If not for the bombs at the bottom of the cliff that destroyed a lot of the rubble, I'd have been a pancake."

"And then I saw the landslide as I drove down a road, pulled up to the mess as soon as I could, found him half-buried, and took him to the hospital. The old boss of the Stone Tanukis payed a hefty amount for all the surgeries he went through, and he's been in the gang since," the lilac-haired girl piped up, garnering a look from the shopkeepers.

"The... old boss?" Kaguya asked, eyes widening.

"Yeah. Matsuki killed him too, but not before he told me that I was to run his gang in his place. And that was three years ago; me going for a tumble happened a good seven years before that. I was only nine at the time my jerk of a relative decided to fuck me over," Tenmei replied, shaking his head glumly. "Frankly, the fall should've killed me by itself... I wonder if the Seven Gods of Luck were watching me then."

Takashi took a moment to absorb everything and frowned. Reaching out and placing a hand on the cloaked man's shoulder, he said as serenely as he could, "I'd like to think they've helped you then. Perhaps they also led your... brother to his own grave."

Tenmei turned to the shopkeeper and sent him a smile. "Then again, karma would've caught up to his dumb ass anyway. All he needed to do was make one small fuck-up, and everything goes spiraling downhill from there. I reckon him and his men pushing me down and trying to make me explode at the same time was that fuck-up," he replied.

"And would that make me having to be his bitch the second smallest fuck-up?" Koto asked, garnering a look from the one-eyed man.

"That's not a small fuck-up; that's sticking yourself on the head of a rocket that's on due course for a collision with the sun," the crossbowman replied, his grin widening.

"Say what?" the pink-eyed girl asked, donning a lopsided smirk.

"Exactly," Tenmei replied in a curt tone, nodding.

"So, Matsuki was that big a dumbass. I think his stupidity is what caused the moon to have big holes in its face," Rekka piped up, smiling as Tenmei looked at him for a total of two seconds before leaning back to laugh jovially.

"You're implying he somehow blew the moon's surface up?" Kaguya interjected, turning to the Shot with a wry grin.

"Bah; it's just dust compacted together by gravity," the pink-eyed girl scoffed with a roll of her eyes, "I doubt his explosives could've made much impact on it to begin with."

"Y'know why all the Foxes had those trucks and guns?" Koto asked, catching everyone's attention. They shook their heads, and at this, she donned a wide smirk, "Every single member I have had the displeasure to service got some pretty bad size issues."

The lilac-haired girl doubled over laughing, while trying to speak coherently simultaneously, "Wait, M-Matsuki had a lit-little pecker?!"

"Littlest one I've seen yet," Koto replied with a giggle.

"So, **that's** one of the reasons he couldn't be bothered to chase you himself! Slashed throat notwithstanding, he sent two assholes after you because he wasn't manly enough!" Rekka howled, a hand over his eyes as he leaned back into the sofa and laughed until his cheeks turned as red as his hair.

"Maybe his brother was manlier as a kid, which would explain the cliff-shoving," the lilac-haired girl remarked, a ridiculously wide smile on her face.

"And that's why a girl finished him off; he was a pansy," Kaguya chortled, hands over her mouth as she shook with laughter.

It took a few moments after that, but the laughter died down. Once it did, Tenmei stood up, motioning for the scantily-clad girls to do the same. He shot Rekka a look as he walked out of the room. "I'll be a few doors over. Feel free to drop by if you wanna talk," he said, and with that, he and the two female Tanukis were out of the den.

Kaguya stood up next, stretching her arms as she yawned. "Maybe tonight I'll sleep well," she mumbled, sauntering out of the room.

Takashi sighed and stood up as well. "She was worrying incessantly about you two," he murmured, shooting the Shot and the Siren another look. "It wasn't until Tenmei showed up last night with the twins did she finally get some sleep. I'll see you two tomorrow." The shopkeeper then left to follow his co-worker, leaving the redhead and blue-haired woman alone in the den.

Rekka looked at Koto, donning a firm frown. "You said Matsuki was all you knew... and then you tell me your dad was a mob boss," he began in a gentle but reprimanding tone, "Why'd you lie?"

Koto looked away, her head hanging low. "I didn't want to get you involved with the man who should've been my father," she replied in a solemn tone. "He told me, before selling me off, that if I disobeyed whoever bought me, he'd have my head. If I went with another man other than the customer, that he'd kill him, too. He also told me he'd always know about my behavior, and that he had ways of knowing."

The Shot nodded to himself. _"She didn't want to see me get hurt, and it sounds like he kept tabs on her,"_ he thought, drawing a heavy sigh. He placed a hand on her shoulder and spoke, "I understand." He sent her a smile when she looked at him despondently, "He has no way of knowing about us yet; only that Matsuki found himself kicking the bucket, and that the Stone Tanukis have been almost entirely eradicated."

The Siren's face contorted slightly, eyes narrowing for a moment as a flicker of consideration sparked in her blue eyes. A long moment passed before she asked, "Do you think the men you and Tenmei killed were informants of the Oni?"

"That's very possible," the man answered, nodding his head. "In fact, I'm starting to think the men who followed you all the way out here to begin with were double agents waiting to turn on Matsuki. We have no way of knowing whether or not that suspicion is true, however, since I shot them down."

"Why do you think they were double agents?" Koto asked, a flicker of worry flashing in her eyes.

"They talked about Matsuki's death and were smiling about it. I swear, they grinned like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread," Rekka answered, his smile fading. "They also brought up his brother... but since said brother told us something completely different, I'm also guessing that's not who they were planning to drag you kicking and screaming to. They said something about a boss, and then about his brother... and looking back on it now, it seems awfully fishy to me."

"You've a number of reasons to suspect the two fat bastards were itching to betray Matsuki, then," the woman sighed glumly, nodding in grim resignation. She scooched a little closer to the redhead, but made no further attempt at anything else.

"Maybe the Tanukis also had a double agent. I didn't see the driver of the van the night the Kitsunes tailed us with a hail of bullets," Rekka went on, his tone turning all the more glum as he spoke. "That's something I'll have to ask Tenmei about, though. It's very likely he'd know; he was a mob boss before things went to shit for him, too."


	6. Chapter VI, Part I- Conspiracy Theorist

"Let's leave him alone for a few days," Koto suggested, sighing. Rekka opened his mouth to speak, but she cut him off before he could form a response, "He lost most of his gang in the last few days. He sounded like he was still bitter over the whole thing."

The Volcanic Shot's jaw shut, and he sat there staring back at her for a moment. "I see your point. I'd be pretty angry if I owned a gang and they got obliterated," he conceded begrudgingly. He blinked, raising a brow as the woman gave him a pleading look.

"May I?" she asked in a hushed tone.

"'May I' what?" he replied, frowning.

"Get... closer to you, physically," Koto whimpered.

For a full minute, the Shot sat there with an unreadable look on his face, eyes flickering with some kind of emotion all the while. "As long as you don't jump me and try putting your hands where they don't go like last time," he finally answered. He flinched as she scooted closer, but relaxed as she kept her hands to herself. "I have to ask, though: why did you jump me to begin with?"

"I was... expecting you to throw me to the ground and have your way with me. My inner whore took over for a few moments that time," Koto explained, her voice faltering as she spoke. Her gaze fell to the coffee table as she went on in a flat tone, "That happened so often to me I got shocked when you didn't do that." She weakly smiled and looked up at him, "Frankly, I'm glad you didn't do that; I'd have spent the whole week crying if you went down that route."

 _"Goody, all of the other men she knew before me apparently were rapists. Guess that explains a lot,"_ the man thought as he drew a heavy sigh. He met her gaze and tried to smile as he spoke, "I don't care if they payed you—I'll eat my own hair if they honestly did—what they did to you was wrong. I may have killed people, and crippled some more with my gun, but I had every reason in the book to do so."

"They never paid me shit, unless... the end result of my services count," Koto sighed, shuddering as she uttered the remark. Her smile fell soon after.

"Yeesh. I'll take it they bruised you daily?" Rekka asked, his frown deepening as the woman next to him nodded glumly.

"Even went and... took me over and over for, ahem, countless rides once I had my legs broken one time," she replied, again shuddering at the mere thought. "It hurt so much, and I could swear my legs got broken even worse because of it. It was still the start of my career when it happened, and sometimes I still have nightmares about it."

Rekka's pupils shrank to pinpricks. "That's... awful," he murmured in a horrified tone. His mind's eye procured the image the woman described, and he shuddered at the rather bleak and disturbing mental scene. "I have no other words to even describe it."

"Well, it's in the past; besides, the Oni's men can't lay another finger on me so long as I keep low," she replied, her tone taking on a disturbingly calm note. She smiled again as she went on, "Dead informants can't rattle off to anyone about the whereabouts of a wanted woman, much less convey them."

"True," the redhead sighed, nodding in agreement. He stiffened when he heard a rather unusual sound come from his companion as she flexed her healed shoulder, one between a giggle, a grunt of pain, and a sharp gasp of pleasure. "The fuck was that?"

"Sorry, just popped my shoulder; it's been hurting since I woke up," the blue-haired girl replied.

"Ah." The man nodded. "I hate it when my shoulder hurts, especially when I'm the one out keeping watch."

"Speaking of, could we stay put for a few days?" Koto asked in a sweet voice, and instantly, the man stiffened again. "I don't want to accidentally wander near the Oni's territory again." She scooted a little closer, now within inches of Rekka's right shoulder. "And... well, after that fiasco, we kinda need to lay low anyway."

"Y-yeah," the Shot stammered, looking at the Siren with widening eyes. He held his breath as the woman held his gaze, resulting in a staring contest that lasted for a moment or so before she looked away and giggled.

"You know... you're kinda adorable when you make that face," Koto noted, giggling as the redhead produced a choking sound.

 _"A-adorable?!"_ his mind screamed as it struggled to reel itself back together from the compliment. His thought processes churned on as his jaw dropped open, _"Oh dammit, Rekka! Pull yourself together; she's obviously fucking with you!"_

The woman let off another string of soft laughs as she briefly glanced at his face again. He paled upon noticing a light blush painting her cheeks. _"Oh no, this can't be good..."_ his mind burbled as soon as it registered the sight. "W-what a-are you laughing at?" he asked.

She stopped giggling before sending him another rosy-cheeked grin. "Oh, it's nothing," she replied in that same sweet tone.

 _"Then why are you smiling, ya blue-eyed she-devil?"_ Rekka thought, an eye starting to twitch at this rather unusual display of behavior on the woman's part.

As if she read his mind, she answered, her grin only widening as she spoke, "Alright, it's something; you're just so cute I can't help but laugh."

 _"Tenmei, please come help me,"_ the Shot mumbled in the back of his skull, despite being aware that the crossbowman wasn't in the room.

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The following morning, Tenmei sat up in bed groaning. Rubbing his eye before putting the single-piece glass on, he crawled out of the covers and strode into an empty room. An incessant knocking filled the air, the noise hard and irregularly-paced, as if whatever procured the racket had been tone-deaf. Grumbling obscenities under his breath, he turned a corner and spotted a lone door. Foregoing the option to retrieve his crossbow before confronting whatever was on the other side of the wood frame, he silently crept to the damned thing and opened it.

His eye widened as Rekka threw himself into the room, closing the door after with loose hair and a harried look on his face. A brow shot high as he asked, "It's six in the morning; what's up with you?"

"Koto," the redhead replied simply, his breathing unsteady. "She's... saying things..."

"Such as...?" Tenmei trailed off, his brow shooting higher.

"She's calling me cute, and I swear she says it in such a way I almost think she could start SINGING at any fucking moment," the Shot answered, face paling as he spoke. He threw his hands onto the Tanuki's shoulders and added, "You've gotta help me. I think she's gone nucking futs."

"Hold up, hold up," Tenmei replied in a stern, tired voice, his eye widening. "She's _hitting_ on you? This what I'm hearing?" He groaned, partly from exasperation as Rekka fervently nodded. He donned a wicked smirk as he said, "Sorry, but I can't help you when the Siren starts playing her serenade. You're all on your own."

"Dammit, I don't wanna end up wrapped around her finger. That woman is unstable, for crying out loud! One minute she'll laugh, the next she'll cry; how in the hell do I—" Rekka started rambling, but a hand not his own going over his moving mouth immediately silenced him.

"Take things slowly with her. She's been a hooker since she was a kid, Rekka; she most likely does not understand that you're not right yet interested in that sort of thing," Tenmei sighed in a reassuring tone of voice, removing his hand from the red-eyed man's lips as he kept speaking. "You're making it sound like she's struggling to accept that it's still somewhat safe here, especially with you around. Just let time take its natural course, and all should be well."

" _Since she was a kid?_ " the Shot parroted in a high-pitched voice, pupils shrinking as the weight of the Tanuki's words settled in. "Oh... oh..."

"Hence why I said to take it slow," Tenmei replied curtly, slowly nodding his head. "She's been mentally damaged by being sold off so young, possibly even irreparably physically damaged just performing those kind of services. There are certain things a woman who's been trained from childhood to be a prostitute cannot comprehend; at least, not immediately. And it's worse since you've just told me she's unstable as a leaf caught in a strong gale."

Rekka swallowed thickly before nodding in glum understanding. "So, I **might** have to cater to her whims..." he trailed off, which the one-eyed man took as his cue to speak up.

"Maybe. But if you're still not interested, let her know that as bluntly, calmly, and gently as you are able. For someone like her, it's only a matter of time before she fucking snaps again; if she was able to take down Matsuki in what I guess was one-on-one combat, then I surmise she can easily end you all the same. That's assuming you don't hit her with a lethal shot or run out of bullets beforehand," the brown-haired sod sighed, shaking his head. "Now, then, did she do anything else, aside from the playful name-calling?"

"No, because I told her not to," the redhead sighed, blinking as he spoke. 

Tenmei quirked up a smile at that. "Good; she's already learning," he murmured. "And since she's learning, it'll probably easier for you to tell her to stop when she gets too... aroused," the brown-haired man added, his smile widening. He made to continue speaking, but the sound of a woman humming in the hall outside grabbed his attention and quickly silenced anything else he'd have liked to say in that moment.

The humming devolved into a soft moaning, and a flush spread on his face. "What is she doing?" the Tanuki whispered, just low enough that whoever stood outside now had no chance to hear him over her own noises.

A sharp gasp echoed in from beyond the door. "She... stripped and... yeah," the Shot replied in an equally hushed tone, his own face breaking out in brilliant crimson. "I think she's trying to find a way to get me to sleep with her, without touching me."

"Oh no, this is gonna be a problem," Tenmei groaned in exasperation, his head dropping as the woman outside fell silent. "Stay here," he ordered, and quickly weaved around the redhead to walk out of the room. **_"Koto, please go put some clothes on. He's uncomfortable seeing you naked,"_** he loudly groaned, and after a playful whine from the woman outside, he sauntered back in. The sound of retreating, soft footsteps echoed in shortly after he re-entered the room, a sign that the blue-haired woman complied with his request.

"So now you see my problem," Rekka grumbled, sighing in relief.

"You didn't tell me she was showing off her body until after she stopped outside the door," Tenmei chided, briefly glaring at the redhead before his visage softened. "And worse yet, my suspicion about irreversible physical injuries may have been confirmed."

"You noticed the scars on her crotch?" the Shot asked flatly.

"Yeah. It's shaped like an oni's face. That's a whole new layer of disturbing if you asked me," the one-eyed man snorted, shaking his head.

"I ignored it the first time I saw it; thought it was just some strange birthmark," Rekka sighed, letting a frown grace his features. "She said the Oni himself didn't hack her before selling her off..."

"If _he_ didn't, I'll bet you ten thousand yen one of his men did," Tenmei huffed, his eye narrowing to a slit as he spoke. "Which is going to be a conundrum if, and possibly when, you decide to throw your hotdog down that hall."

"Oh great, another thing to add to the list of Koto's problems," the Shot snorted in an overly sarcastic tone of voice.

The redhead once more paled as the Tanuki groaned, "You bet; if they slashed her from within, it's gonna make sex more painful than pleasurable for her. If the entrance has been narrowed—don't ask me how I know this—it's gonna be worse on her end. And if she gets pregnant, heaven forbid, she might die before she can get the kid out. For all we know, they could've hacked off her... ahem, _pleasure button_ just to make it hurt all that much worse."

The redhead raised a brow, eyes glinting with wonder. "Oh? I didn't know you had a fetish for that sort of thing. Now that I know, can we please keep talking about it?" Rekka quipped, smiling as the Tanuki started spluttering in exasperation.

After gathering what remained of his composure and clearing his throat, Tenmei scoffed, "Ha. Seriously Rekka, it sounds like she's struggling with being a masochist... or something along those lines." The man let a hand connect with the right side of his face as he finished. He slid his hand down his cheek, careful to avoid accidentally tugging the eyepatch off, and shook his head. "Seriously, that girl disturbs me." He began smiling again as he went on, however, "But I saw no scarring on her inner thighs, so maybe they've only damaged her externally. Neither of us will know for certain, though... until she gets what she wants."

"Yeah... this is another tough pickle to add to the pile of problems that still needs to be cleaned up," the Shot sighed, his smirk being replaced by a firm frown. He held a hand to his chin and rubbed thoughtfully as he mumbled, "We'll need to stay low for a few days anyway. I might see to... fucking her during that time, but I dunno for sure yet."

Tenmei noted a nervous flicker that darted about in the redhead's crimson gaze, as well as another of fear. "Afraid to hurt her?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"By accident. That, and..." Rekka trailed off, shifting his hands to stuff them in his pants pockets as his feet shuffled for a bit. "I've... never been close with anybody, to be honest. Hell, I rarely let other people touch me; it always felt wrong to have another hand on me that wasn't my own. At least, until I met her. I took care of her, helped her get better, I even sat next to her when she was emotionally distressed and carried her to bed once... I guess she's just trying to repay me in the only way she knows how." His head dropped and his shoulders sagged, "Part of me is screaming to not get closer to her, but the other half is calling me a jerk for rejecting her advances."

He looked up at the Tanuki as he continued to prattle, "I found out, she wasn't close with anybody either; yet, she'd been under the _illusion_ that she had gotten close with Matsuki. Him pushing her to the edge to make her sleep with all of his gang members—I'm assuming during the same night here—must've been the wake-up call to shatter that pipe dream. She went so far to tell me that, because I didn't treat her like all of the other men did, she doesn't even know what the hell to do anymore. I think her confusion is, along with her inner prostitute and instability, driving her up the wall ten ways to Sunday. Honest to the Seven Gods of Luck, I have no clue what to do either—I'm lost."

Tenmei donned a firm frown and released a heavy sigh. "So, you're both confused. Just take it slowly; last thing you both need is to rush things," he stated in a gentle but matter-of-fact tone. He placed a hand on Rekka's shoulder, noting the brief flinch the long-haired man released as the hand drew nearer, and gave him a reassuring series of pats. "And if you do decide to do it, and if it hurts her, let me know, and I'll think up of alternatives to that problem should it arise."

The Shot smiled again and nodded. "Thanks. I feel like a boulder got thrown off my chest," he mumbled. "She's too cuckoo for my liking, though. I'll give her a day or two to calm down," he noted.

"Hey, I'll always be here to help," Tenmei replied as he nodded back. He began to grin as well, only to frown a moment later as his eye glinted with some kind of spark. "Now, then, we'll need to chat about what to do in the next few days—possibly weeks." At the redhead's nod, he proceeded, "If the Oni has somehow managed to get the cops on his side, that's going to be a huge problem that none of us are ready to tackle; we're under-supplied, and counting the twins and shopkeepers, just a small group of stragglers that can easily be taken out with a machine gun."

"You think the cops will swarm Aokigahara Trail, if that's the case?" Rekka inquired, his smile also falling.

"Yes, but arrests won't be made. If anything—and this is only a suspicion on my behalf—they'll just determine the cause of death and sic the Oni himself on us," the one-eyed man answered in a glum tone, shaking his head. "Which, thanks to my choice of weaponry, is going to be easy as hell for them to do. I am the only mob boss in the whole city who uses a **crossbow,** as far as I am aware, so they'll naturally assume I did kill some of the Kuchisake's men that night."

"Would that piss off the Oni, though, once he knows and sees the evidence firsthand that you're still alive?" the redhead sighed, a deepening frown emerging on his face as he waited for an answer.

"He is probably going to be so angry that the youkai in the Nine Levels of Hell will tremble in fear. And once he knows I'm still running loose, he'll start scouring entire buildings until I get flushed out; he doesn't take it particularly well when members of a gang he thought his men wiped out are still in hiding," the Tanuki stated, his eye briefly betraying a flicker of rage. "I have heard of many other gangs that have suffered the fate of eradication, with many stragglers being subjected to his not-so-tender mercies. I tell you, Rekka, the things I have been told as soon as I became the boss of the Tanukis weren't the least bit pretty."

The redhead's brow creased in a frown and his eyes flickered in worry as Tenmei went on, "But since there are also bullets in that fray of corpses, they'll probably use the ballistic markings to connect you to that mess. You're the only thug I know of who—until everything started spiralling downhill for us all—was a lone wolf that uses a double-action revolver whose muzzle has been modified to be more like a single-action. All of the other thugs, gang members and otherwise, usually stick to shotguns, semi-automatic handguns, and rifles. If the Oni has any hair left on his head, when he finally knows you're involved and possibly working with me, he'll start yanking every damn strand out as the heavens tremble in fear of his wrath."

"And if he finds us, we're all going on a one-way trip to the Nine Levels of Hell," Rekka groaned, eyes still glinting with worry. "There's something else that's been bothering me, though."

"What would that be?" the Tanuki asked, his brow rising.

"Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I've been under the impression that the Black Kitsunes have had at least two double agents..." Rekka began, his face hardening.

"Oh, boy, what makes you think that?" Tenmei asked, brow raising even higher.

"Two of Matsuki's men tailed Koto all the way here, and when they blundered into me, they talked about his death with smiles on their faces. They also said they wanted to drag Miss Horndog to a relative, such as you. Given that you told us something completely different, I've started suspecting that the two bastards who made the mistake of confronting me with knives wanted to take her to someone else. And that's just the whole thing in a nutshell," Rekka answered, shaking his head. "Furthermore, they hollered something about a boss before I even got out of them that Matsuki had died."

Tenmei's eye went wide as the redhead spoke, a spark of worry flickering about in his brown iris. "With the way you said that, I'm starting to think those two were just waiting for Matsuki to give them a reason to betray him," he murmured.

"Oh, the two bastards sounded really fucking happy about it as they told me your idiot brother kicked the bucket," the Shot sighed, nodding fervently.

The Tanuki's pupil shrank. "As in..." he trailed off, his voice turning raspy as his mouth dried out.

"Yes. They gloated about it," Rekka confirmed in a solemn tone.


	7. Chapter VI, Part II- A Blunder of Violet

Koto sat on the couch, eschewing getting dressed. Her face set in a scowl, although there had been a flicker of sadness in her eyes. "Dammit, I fucked up again," she mumbled to nobody in particular.

 _"You know he likes it,"_ a voice in her head hissed menacingly. _"He's just stalling for as long as he can."_

"No, he doesn't. Just... just go away," the woman snarled, looking up to find a bare wall. She stilled as the door opened and footsteps shuffled for a moment. The Siren dared not turn her head to see who it was, and her scowl eased as she heard a sigh of exasperation.

"You looked sour two seconds ago. Is something wrong?" a man's voice asked.

"I'm... arguing with myself, Rekka. And I am losing," Koto answered, still not turning her head to the man who had entered the room.

 _"Possible schizophrenia? Check,"_ the redhead thought as the woman continued to avoid looking at him. He moved another step closer, but that didn't seem to garner her full attention. He made to take another step forward, but stilled as his foot lifted a few inches off of the ground when the Siren abruptly stood bolt upright and looked at him.

Koto held an unreadable gaze on her visage. "I overheard the whole thing," she spoke in a quiet tone. Her lips quirked into a small smile as she added, "Looks like I'm not the only one who's confused."

Rekka opened his mouth to speak, but no words could be articulated as a tense and awkward silence filled the room. The two stared at one another for what felt like hours and hours on end, one sporting widening eyes and the other maintaining a small grin all the while. Neither made a move towards the other, and in Koto's case, she made no move to cover her assets with her hands.

The staring contest continued, neither breaking eye contact as the woman spoke up once more, "Well, since we're in the same boat, I might wanna clear something up—something else you and Tenmei are right to worry about." She rose a hand to gesture to her crotch and added, "No, a knife hasn't been plunged up my snatch. Just on the outside, as you can see."

"Doesn't change the fact that you're showing it off," Rekka retorted at last, a shiver running up his spine.

"A fair point," Koto conceded, her smile widening. "Doesn't change the fact that you're a talking statue at the moment."

 _"Damn! Just how long have I been standing still?!"_ the redhead mentally groaned, averting his gaze downward and realizing one of his feet had still been up off of the ground. He set his foot down hastily, only to flinch as a feeling of numbness set in from the ankle up immediately after.

The sound of the Siren chortling snapped his attention away from his numb leg, and he stilled as she moved a step closer, then two steps back. _"What the hell are you doing?"_ he asked in the depths of his mind.

"I'm going to get dressed. Let's give things some more time to settle down; it was _your_ idea after all, and I'm merely heeding it," Koto said in a seductive tone, turning her back and going to the stairs. She shot a glance over her shoulder and slyly winked at Rekka before ascending the flight.

 _"Did she just... oh no. Note to self: ask Kaguya for further advice,"_ the Shot thought, shuddering again.

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The day dragged on without further incident, and the sun set after a long while, letting night grace the city and its inhabitants. Koto slept soundly on the couch, head on an armrest and no blanket to cover her form. She squirmed a bit for a moment before going still, mumbling something about potholders and rubber bands. Her murmurings silenced after a bit, and the room fell quiet again.

The night dragged on, and as it did, thunderclouds formed. A thick coat of rain then drenched the streets and buildings, but from within the quiet room, a dull pattering echoed ceaselessly. A soft drumming of thunder briefly shook the complex, in turn rousing the Siren from her slumber.

The woman shifted to stand and glanced around, noticing naught but sable for a few moments before she rubbed her eyes and they adjusted to the black. She stepped over the coffee table clumsily, nearly falling onto the floor, but caught herself before her face had the chance to meet with the wood.

Instantly after that, she stilled. Her gut began churning and twisting, and her eyes narrowed to sapphire slits as the sound of thunder once more thrummed in the sky outside. Koto made to stand, whirling to face the entrance of the den. In the minimal light, she caught sight of her boomerang resting next to the door, leaning against the wall in a way the bend faced inward. Silently, she crept to it, picking it up before near-soundlessly opening the door and entering the hall.

Her stomach clenched itself more as soon as her left foot entered the hall. She gripped her boomerang tighter, her knuckles turning white as the azure-haired woman hesitantly stepped deeper into the hall. Koto made it to the stairwell when she caught something—a flash of violet, accompanied by a frantic scuffling. "Who's there?" she asked, and at once the scuffling stopped.

"D-don't hurt me," a frightened, unfamiliar woman's voice answered back in a rather shrill tone. "I-I just... I-I'm hiding f-from him..."

Koto sighed, suppressing a shudder. "Come upstairs; I have no idea who you are, but I know a really good place you can hide in," she said in a rather forced serene tone. Her gut eased a bit, yet still kept itself clenched. She felt the need to ask who this 'him' was from the other person, but turned around and went back to the den at a slow gait. The shuffling resounded behind her, indicating that the newest arrival had followed her closely.

She opened the door and noticed the lights had been switched on, as well as Rekka standing next to the doorway with an unreadable look and bloodshot eyes. "I heard shouting from outside, what is—" he stopped and gaped at the new arrival that followed his companion inside the den. Koto turned around and noticed him looking down, following his gaze to see a naked, thin, very pale, and heavily scarred woman who walked on all fours like a dog. Her hair was tangled and went down to her thighs, covering her back with the way she was standing. "—where'd this purple-haired, purple-eyed girl come from?" he asked.

"Found her on the stairs, about to enter the hall. Said she was hiding from someone, but didn't say who," the Siren answered with a shrug, shaking her head glumly as she turned back to the Shot.

"S-safe spot?" the violet-haired arrival croaked, instantly garnering Koto's attention once again.

Koto exchanged another glance with Rekka. "I'll take her further upstairs and see if I can calm her down—" she stopped as soon as she heard men shouting from the street. "—while you see what the commotion is," the azure-haired woman finished, motioning for the purple-haired girl to follow her as she moved to and then ascended the flight. The new arrival bounded forth on all fours, heading up the flight as smoothly as if she'd been going on just her two legs.

Rekka nodded once the women vanished up the stairs and shut off the light before blazing out of the room and running towards Tenmei's doorstep. He knocked loudly, and after a moment the crossbowman answered the door with an irate look on his face. "This had better be important," the Tanuki grumbled.

"Get your crossbow; a violet-haired woman somehow got into the apartment and she brought trouble with her," the redhead sighed before groaning and shaking his head. "Dammit, now I am getting a feeling of déjà vu," he murmured under his breath after Tenmei retreated back into his den. The men in the street continued to raise a fuss outside, getting louder and louder all the while, and the gunslinger surmised that the whole complex would be aroused at this rate.

Tenmei returned, crossbow in hand. "Joy, more target practice," he scoffed in a sarcastic tone before his face hardened. "Your pistol loaded?"

"It's always loaded, except when I run out of bullets," Rekka quipped, quirking a smile. "As soon as I heard the noise outside, I went and packed extra bullets in one of my pockets."

"Dammit, the fucking purple-haired bitch gave us the slip! She shouldn't be this hard to find; that hair's distinct!" one of the men in the street shouted. "Ya think she's in one of these buildings?"

"Look, an open window on the ground floor! She must've gone through there!" another yodeled.

Rekka's grin only widened. "I think I know where to look for clues now," he murmured. At Tenmei's nod, he briskly but silently went to the stairs, the Tanuki following suit. Both went down into the first floor hall, the shouting men getting all the more loud as they filed down the next flight to the ground floor. Three doors down to the right of the stairs and away from the entrance of the complex, a doorknob jiggled before its corresponding door found itself flying open. The duo exchanged a glance and hid in an open spot next to the stairs, just out of sight of whoever else decided it was a fine idea to intrude this night.

"Hey," one of the intruders began, "aren't we in the part of town that people have been going into and never coming out of again?"

"Yeah; I heard two of Matsuki Wakizashi's men came through here tailing some blue-haired cunt. None of the three came out of this district," another answered with a huff. "And now, we're tailing a purple-haired slut... maybe what caused those before us to vanish stole her away." As the second spoke, three sets of footsteps echoed into the dark hall.

"Does that mean we should leave, or keep looking?" a third piped up, bits of worry and agitation in his tone.

"If we don't find her by sunrise, we get our asses out of here. I've heard that there's a red-eyed youkai in these woods, and that's probably what stole the people who came in away," the second replied.

Tenmei shot a glance at Rekka, who shrugged and shook his head. _"They called you a demon; I think you should be offended by that,"_ he mouthed silently.

 _"Let's focus on the task at hand,"_ Rekka mouthed back. He took a chance and peered out, noticing three fat men in the hall, just in front of the entrance, jabbering about who was going to do what. Removing his gun from its holster and cocking it as silently as he could, he took aim, smirking as the men were still too distracted to even notice him.

Three loud cracks rang out in rapid succession, and after that, three more corpses littered the floor of the hall. "I'll let you have the next batch, but I think that's all of them," he said, shooting the brown-haired man a glance as he stepped out into the hall. "For now, though, we got bodies to dispose of and a room to examine."

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"So, _that's_ the purple-haired girl I've been hearing about..." Tenmei sighed, seeing Koto on the couch with the aforementioned newcomer huddled very close to her. "Damn, she looks worse for wear."

"You found out anything?" Rekka asked, frowning.

Koto shook her head. "No, unless her name counts," she answered.

"A name's better than nothing," the Shot countered before releasing a sigh. His gaze moved to the new arrival, who instantly shrank and whimpered as if the mob that had been after her stood behind him. "Hey, it's okay; I won't bite," the redhead mumbled in a soft tone, but the violet-haired girl didn't relax.

Koto rubbed the naked woman's shoulder and said in a soothing tone, "He won't hurt you, I promise. Hell, he took me in when I was in a similar boat as you."

Instantly, the newcomer turned to the azure-haired woman. "You... promise?" she squeaked. The Siren nodded and smiled at her.

"So, what's her name, then?" Tenmei piped up, eyeing the violet-haired woman with an unreadable look.

"Y-Yuuki... my name is Yuuki," the purple-eyed girl mumbled.

Tenmei's eye went wide as a saucer. "You... you survived?" he asked, voice laced in disbelief.

Rekka jerked his gaze to the Tanuki and asked, "Survived what?"

The one-eyed man glanced at the Shot and elaborated, "She was... present when the Onis came to my doorstep and wrecked everything. She wasn't a member of either gang; just a random passerby who was there at the wrong time. One of the twins told me her name, and... and..." he trailed off, glancing back at the newcomer. He shivered upon noticing the rampant scars on her body, and his mouth cracked open soundlessly, eye glinting in askance.

"O-Oni... got... me," the naked woman croaked, visibly shaking. "S-sent... men to... g-get me a-again..."

Koto and Rekka exchanged another look, eyes widening as they turned back to Yuuki. The girl kept cowering helplessly, mumbling something about kitchen knives and pure hatred. "Hey, it's okay, he won't get you again," the Siren said in a soothing tone.

"H-he won't? N-no more knives a-and groping?" Yuuki whimpered in a faltering voice, her quivering lessening more and more as the other three people in the room nodded.

"He'll have to get through us first," Rekka answered in a confident but gentle tone. "We won't let him touch and stab you again. Not if we have anything to say about it."

The thin woman donned a small, genuine smile. It fell, though, as she opened her mouth to yawn loudly. "Need... bed..." she mumbled, eyelids fluttering as she spoke. Yuuki slumped against Koto, eyes still fluttering open and shut in the span of mere seconds, her form relaxing as sleep took her then and there.

"Looks like someone hasn't slept well the last few days. That, and we're gonna have to get her clothes on our next trip to find food," Tenmei sighed bitterly, a small grin cropping on his face in spite of his tone.

Rekka released a huff from his nostrils, then turned to the Tanuki with a brow raised. "Where in hell are we gonna get either of those things, though? You told us yourself that Takashi's shop was looted and destroyed," he pointed out.

Tenmei chuckled for a moment before answering, "Doesn't mean they don't have another storehouse around here somewhere. Heck, I think I know where one is at, and we can load the goods into my van with no problem."

Rekka's eyes went wide. He spluttered for a moment, trying to speak, only for his jaw to shut as Koto spoke up, "Wait, so if what you're saying is true, then we can get more goods while evading the Oni's men?"

The Tanuki nodded, his smirk widening. "And all we have to do is ask the shopkeepers about it, and perhaps for a key of some kind," he replied. "If we're really lucky, there might even be a few warehouses that get their wares changed on a daily basis. Those damn things are essential for shopkeepers like them, after all."

"If you're talking about warehouses, doesn't that mean they have a boss to contact?" the Siren inquired, frowning.

"Probably, but we can just tell him they're hiding from the Oni's men for a while," Tenmei answered, noticing the Shot shaking his head.

"But there's a chance that he won't buy it. If that's gonna be the case, then we're gonna have to tag along with the shopkeepers if they have a boss and when they decide to head to wherever he's at—Yuuki and the twins included. Then, we can say the Oni's daughter is with them, and maybe then he'll relent. I'd just rather we wouldn't need to go to such an extreme, though," the redhead retorted, sighing heavily.

"But maybe this 'boss' will wonder how a frightening geezer like the Oni managed to produce little old me. I'm essentially the polar opposite of that asswipe," Koto interjected in a snide tone.

"Except when you kill people with a knife in the throat," Rekka quipped, garnering a giggle from the blue-haired woman.

Yuuki shifted in her sleep, letting of an unintelligible muttering or two, which caused everyone who was awake to turn to her and hush for a moment. "... rice cakes," she mumbled, "I want rice cakes."

"I'm starting to think she was homeless prior to straying here," Tenmei sighed, shaking his head sadly. "Clearly, she hasn't been fed well; even curled up like that, I think I can see a rib or two."

"Well, she's with us now. We may still have enough food to last everyone at least a few more days, and we can afford to let her use the tub tomorrow morning. But her hair needs a thorough brushing," Rekka noted as he eyed the new girl. "Hell, I think we're gonna have to cut most of it off; those tangles would be a bitch to undo."

"I agree; those tangles are easily the size of motherfucking Russia," Tenmei conceded, shoulders slumping for a moment.

"But for now, Yuuki needs to sleep. I might conk out watching her, but if I do, then if and when I wake up in the event that she's still out like a light, I'll wait for her to get up before escorting her to the tub. She might not be comfortable with a man in the same room in which she's bathing, which is why I am volunteering for this," Koto interjected again, turning to the sleeping nude woman and smiling as she continued to mumble about her desire for rice cakes.

"Then again, she was pretty chill with us once we told her she's safe... still, given those scars all over her body, I can see why you'd want to help her bathe," the Shot stated, nodding in agreement. He turned to Tenmei and added, "Let's get back to sleep; I'm feeling tired all over again."

"And I feel like I got hit by a train," Tenmei grumbled before smiling.


	8. Chapter VII- A Single Carving

The Shot and Siren stood in the hall outside of the den that following morning, and both began chatting.

"You cut her hair that short?" Rekka snorted, his face contorting to display a wide array of emotions as he stared at Koto. He finally settled on a simple small frown when she nodded. "Damn, didn't think her locks were that far gone. Oh well, at least she still has some hair on her head."

"Even after I hacked most of it off, it was still a bitch to brush through the leftovers," Koto sighed, a very firm frown on her face and a spark of anger in her eyes. "Yuuki told me the Oni's men deliberately kept it that way to cause her as much pain as possible. At this rate, I'm surprised they haven't given her the handcuff treatment, as far as I know."

"They might have. But let's not prod the woman who walks on all fours with too many questions; she might already be going cuckoo," Rekka replied glumly, shaking his head.

"But there's something else I noticed," Koto stated just as the Shot opened his mouth to speak again. As soon as his brow raised high, she went on, "It's on her lower back. I found it as soon as I was done with her extreme case of bedhead. Just... lemme get Yuuki and have her show it to you. It's hard to explain."

The redhead nodded and watched as his azure-haired companion ran into the den. His frown hardened a little when she returned moments later with the newcomer behind her heels, her hair cut and brushed to shoulder-length. Yuuki was walking on all fours with a bit of a noticeable limp,keeping her rear as low to the floor as possible. "Yuuki, can you show me your lower back?" he asked simply.

Yuuki's eyes went wide, and her face paled. "P-promise me y-you won't touch i-it," she stammered, voice faltering when 'i-it' came out of her mouth.

"I won't touch it. You have my word," Rekka sighed as sincerely as he could. Worry flickered in his eyes when the heavily-scarred woman nodded with a whimper and turned around so he could see whatever it was Koto had found. That worry increased tenfold, and his mouth dried out when he eyed a scar resting just above the end of the spinal column that looked like some kind of animal sporting wings and three legs. The skin around the scar hadn't been pale; no, it was distinctly deep rich brown in color, and the scar it held had been so sable in hue he couldn't tell if it was a tattoo or not.

"It's a Yatagarasu," Koto said in a hushed tone as she eyed the scar. She turned to Rekka and asked, "Have you heard of the Abyssal Yatagarasu Fellowship?"

"Y-yeah," he answered with a shaky nod, swallowing thickly as he turned to meet the Siren's gaze. "Second most powerful gang, only succeeded in strength and tact by the Onis. Very brutal too; in fact, I heard—"

Koto cut him off, "That they've treated their women so bad they've begged for death the first five minutes into whatever torture session they could throw them in?" At the Shot's nod, she went on, "Well, I think either one of two things happened, both of which are very possible: Yuuki's a prostitute for the gang and the boss threw her away, or the Yatagarasus got crushed. Regardless, it's bad for us; if the Yatagarasu Fellowship's still around..."

"... we now have two gangs to deal with, if that's the case," Rekka finished for her in a glum tone, directing his gaze at the woman on the floor who looked back at him with a pleading expression. He knelt down, flinching as the woman turned around so her entire front could face him, violet eyes glimmering with what looked to be fear.

"... Please, kill me," Yuuki pleaded in a hushed tone. "I-I don't wa-want them finding me..." As soon as she finished her request, the hall fell silent. The two pairs of eyes that turned to her went wide, their owners paling as the Yatagarasu's wish sank in.

Koto knelt down and placed a hand on Yuuki's shoulder, garnering the newcomer's attention. "First, tell us something: is the Fellowship still around?" she inquired.

Yuuki nodded, her short hair briefly flapping about as she made the motion. "I-I'm... the... the seal o-of the p-pact between th-them and the... the Oni's men," she answered in a hushed tone, her head dropping. Her bangs obscured her face as she went on, "I-if I... if I d-die, th-the two will f-fight, and both... both could be w-wiped out."

"Rekka, we have a huge problem!" Tenmei's voice bellowed, and the three looked down the corridor as the Tanuki came running into the hall from the stairs with a harried look on his shadowed face. He sprinted to them, crossbow in one hand and a rolled-up newspaper in the other, panting for breath like it had been his last.

Rekka stood up. "What's with the newspaper?" he asked, gesturing to the rolled-up wad.

Tenmei unrolled it with his one hand and shoved it into the redhead's palms. "Are you able to read?" he asked.

"Yes, I can read," Rekka grumbled, his frown hardening as he took the paper and brought it closer to his face to study the latest news. "Why on..." he trailed off, hands trembling as he absorbed the information scrawled onto the pages. He lowered it and stared at Tenmei with wide eyes. "The Yatagarasu Fellowship and the Kuchisake Onis have... they _merged?_ "

"That's... that's what Yuuki just told us," Koto murmured, voice quivering as fear sparked in her eyes.

"What?" Tenmei's own eye went wide as he turned to the Siren.

"Yuuki's a Yatagarasu... she said she's the seal of the pact between her gang and the Onis. She's... even asked us to kill her because of that," Koto answered, her shoulders flinching.

"She wants... to die? But that could land us in even deeper shit than we're in now," the Tanuki retorted, shaking his head.

"She said it had potential to get the gangs to turn on each other, though. I understand her pain, but... killing her is something I wouldn't dare risk," Koto stated, nodding. Hearing Yuuki let off a pleading whine, the blue-haired woman glanced down and said, "We're not going to let the rest of the Yatagarasus get you, either. You're staying alive; that's that."

"Shit... I'm getting the growing feeling it's no longer safe here," Rekka hissed in a low tone, eyes narrowing. "We might have to pack up and leave before another mob gathering shows up."

"There's something else I found. I'll get the twins and shopkeepers, and show you what I'm speaking of. Stay put for a few," Tenmei ordered, running off to one of the doors further down before knocking on it.

"My money's on 'ominous warning of some kind,'" Rekka muttered to Koto, eyes narrowing to slits as he watched the Tanuki usher the others out of their rooms and briefly fill them in on the situation.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

"This carving in the wall _does_ scream 'ominous warning' to me. Rekka, do you have a third eye I don't know about?" Koto asked, lazily spinning her massive boomerang with one hand and at the same time eyeing a wall on the ground floor hall with the others surrounding her. She'd been mindful enough to keep her distance from everyone else so as to not accidentally hurt them with the weapon. This wall had a simple message carved into its derelict frame: _'You need to run, lest they find you.'_

"I find it odd the message has been left here of all places. But do you know what strikes me as odd about this carving?" Takashi piped up, garnering everyone's attention as he spoke.

"What? It's clearly telling us we need to hole up somewhere else," Kaguya snapped in an irritated tone.

"It doesn't say where we should run too," Takashi retorted as his eye narrowed, equally as snappish. "But the carver only carved into the aged paint, and not in the slate sheet beneath said paint."

"I was the one who carved into this wall when I first visited," Tenmei admitted, getting a few wayward glances from Rekka and Koto, the former narrowing his eyes coldly. He gestured to the carving and went on, "I used a crossbow bolt as a warning, and left this here in case that wasn't enough."

"You could have just knocked, or woken us up and told us," Rekka snapped angrily. He watched when Tenmei nodded in his direction with a bit of guilt flickering in his iris as he reached into his cloak and pulled out a flip-form cellphone a moment later. "How many pockets do you have?"

"Why the phone?" Yuuki asked, grunting as she made to stand upright.

Tenmei opened the phone and proceeded to fiddle about with it before handing it to Rekka. "In order, I have only the pockets of my pants, and it's a phone belonging to someone, possibly a member of the Onis or Yatagarasus. I pilfered it from one of the intruders last night after they took a few bullets," he answered bluntly. "Read those text messages aloud, if you please."

"'Found the seal of the contract... ran into an old apartment complex that isn't destroyed in the middle of Vermilion Road,'" Rekka murmured. He went on, "'In building with lots of locked doors; heard something going on upstairs as we got in. Might find the seal yet.'"

"What's all this about a seal of some contract?" Takashi asked, wincing as he found himself wishing he had kept his mouth shut.

"I told you that the Abyssal Yatagarasus and the Kuchisake Onis made a deal, right?" Tenmei snapped. At the shopkeeper's nod, he continued, "Well, that sealing of the deal's with us as we speak—in the form of someone who arrived last night."

Kaguya's eyes widened. "In that case, we'd best move. We'll pack the food and ammunition in the back," she said, grabbing Takashi and dragging him up the stairs by his arm. Moments later, they returned and ran out of the complex carrying the ammunition crates as well as a small open box of canned goods.

"They sure do work fast," Tenmei noted as soon as the shopkeepers had vanished out into the street. "Good thing I packed my crossbow in the back already; the less work everyone has to do, the sooner we can get out of here."

"Yes they do," Rekka conceded, nodding. "I'm starting to think that, if they do have a boss, then he worked those two half to death. In all honesty, if such is the case, then I feel sorry for them."

"All of the food and ammunition's loaded!" Takashi called as he and Kaguya bustled back into the building, causing a brow on a red-eyed face to arch.

"How much do we have left?" Rekka inquired.

"Little; at best, six cans' worth," Kaguya sighed, shaking her head. "We'll need to get more food sometime tonight, if not tomorrow. The ammunition crates are thoroughly secured and covered, and it's a very good thing there's an abundance of tarps and blankets and cables to keep it such."

"I'd rather skip a night of grub if it means we all stay alive a week longer," Rekka snorted, sighing. He heard a giggle and allowed his gaze to roam from one person to the next, until he spotted the Tanuki women holding hands to their mouths. "What's so funny?" he asked.

The scantily-clad Tanuki with lilac hair lowered her hand and proceeded to reply, "We found some clothes in one of the other rooms for the new girl last night. Some pants, a shirt, and a hoodie to cover her up." She grabbed Yuuki's arm and started tugging her up the stairs, and the pink-eyed girl darted past them with another giggle. "We'll get her dressed, and then Mimu and I will cover ourselves, and then we can hit the road."

"Don't touch her too much, Mimi. She's still fidgety about the whole thing," Tenmei stated before the girls had a chance to vanish up the stairs.

"Can do!" Mimi called back, and with that, the girls finished the flight of stairs.

"Once they're done playing dress-up, we're going to get in the van. However, Rekka and Koto, I'll have to ask you two to sit in the far back this time," Tenmei began. The Shot opened his mouth to protest, but the Tanuki cut him off before he could begin to speak, "There's a lot of blankets and tarps in the back; since we've already got our sole Yatagarasu making herself look inconspicuous, we're going to need you both to lay low. Face it, your long vermilion and azure locks of hair make you both stand out like a pair of thumbtacks strewn about with a lot of nails. I'll be hiding with you two under the tarps and such; makes it look inconspicuous if the cops decide to pull the van over."

Rekka closed his mouth and rose a hand to rub his chin, sighing in defeat as he held up the cellphone and flipped through varying texts to numbers and names he did not recognize. Aside from the two that Tenmei had him recite to the others, nothing piqued his interest—in fact, a lot of the messages consisted of pictures of money, weapons, and half-naked women in suggestive poses on magazine covers.

He tethered on the point to cease his bout of scanning the textual contents when one message with a picture made him stop. That picture made his eyes widen; in a halo of light, bound and gagged to chairs, were two blindfolded young girls with purple and blue hair, with said purple haired girl leaking blood from a relatively fresh-looking array of scars. A man was also present, though he'd been decapitated and hacked into pieces. 

"Tenmei... are these two who I think they are?" he asked, handing the cloaked man the phone and gesturing to the picture it depicted in one movement.

"Koto, I'd ask for an explanation at this point, but this picture conveys more than a thousand words here," Tenmei groaned, shaking his head as he kept his one-eyed gaze on the accursed photo. He handed the Siren the blasted object, and upon looking at what it had on its little screen, she promptly handed it back with a bitter sigh.

"First week on the job. Wouldn't be surprised if the sick fucks made a snuff film out of it, given that they've already captured it on a phone," she snorted, her eyes narrowing. "But... that other girl in that picture..."

"You think that might've been Yuuki?" Rekka questioned, eyes averting to Koto.

"Well, at least we now know the Oni had her first. Perhaps he gave her to the Yatagarasus, and they branded her after," Koto replied, a hard frown cropping up on her brow. "Regardless, it still means we're in deeper shit now."

"Neck-deep, I'm assuming?" Takashi asked.

"More like chin-deep," the Siren replied curtly. She turned her gaze upon the stairs as the twins and Yuuki came bustling back down, a white hood concealing one face and some rather baggy, light grey clothes that concealed another two sets of bodies.

"Why's she still walking on all fours?" Kaguya piped up, gesturing to Yuuki for emphasis. The now-not-naked woman strode up to her and sat in front of her like a dog.

"My back hurts if I stand on just my legs for too long. If I walk like this," Yuuki paused mid-answer to stand on her hands and feet and circle the shopkeeper once before sitting back down, "then it doesn't hurt."

"Sounds to me like she has an issue with her spinal column," Tenmei huffed, shaking his head at the display. "Oh well, it can't be helped. You might as well be asking me to regrow half of my face."

"I bet the bird on her lower back has something to do with it. The patch of skin around the branding mark is so damn brown I thought for a second a Middle Eastern man decided to hack off some of his own skin and glue it to her body. No offense, Tenmei," Rekka said, his gaze also affixed on the woman who walked on all fours.

"None taken," Tenmei replied in a flat tone. "Now, then, we have a van to get in." Here, he turned to look at the female shopkeeper with an impassive look. "Kaguya, you're driving."

"I-I... I what?" Kaguya spluttered as she jerked her gaze to the scarred Tanuki, eyes wide and a brow shooting up.

"You're driving," Tenmei repeated in a stern voice. "I'll be hiding in the back with the weapons, as well as Redhead and Blue Eyes, and I've heard of Takashi's... frantic driving. Since we're going to be leaving shortly, especially considering that we really don't want the cops catching us in the cab and arresting everybody in the process, I feel that you're best suited for the task. A slow-moving vehicle is less inconspicuous out there, especially one with five unarmed persons. You could just tell whoever does manage to pull us over that you, your husband, and your kids are heading off to a funeral, and the stuff in the back are mostly gifts for the departed."

Both Kaguya and Takashi spluttered incoherently, exchanging wide-eyed and beet red glances with one another as Tenmei's words sank in.

"What about the license plates, if there are any?" Yuuki interjected, instantly garnering the former mob boss's attention.

Tenmei donned a wide smirk, his eye glinting with amusement. "I have several really convincing fakes in the van. I always have the plates switched before the engine starts roaring. We're covered," he answered simply. He started walking down the hall, stopping halfway to gesture the rest of the group to follow him. The others began trudging behind him, and he pointed to the back of the van once they reached it in the alley outside, the back door lifted wide open for easy access. Rekka stepped to the anomaly and found tarps, cables, the boxes Takashi and Kaguya hefted moments ago, and an assortment of license plates.

He smirked and picked up a plate with one hand, reaching up to grasp the vertically-opening door before tugging it down. In moments, the plates were switched, and after that three people crawled in and watched as Takashi took the time to close the door behind them. Rekka, Koto, and Tenmei threw the semi-plastic-y covers over them and jostled under the tarps in an attempt to look like convincing boxes of junk. Once Kaguya claimed the driver's seat and everyone else got situated in the remaining seats, she found a key already inserted into the twist mechanism. She turned the key swiftly and smiled as the van's engine whirred to life. She drove the van out of the street and smoothly sailed down some roads, and a half-hour passed, during which time the vehicle gained several miles of distance from the den thanks to her guidance. A loud, distant boom reverberated through the sky and shook the ground like a great crack of thunder, just as the van wheeled out of the city limits.

Yuuki glanced out of the back of the van, eyes widening as thick plumes of black smoke rose into the sky, very faintly tinted with reds and golds. Mimi and Mimu also jerked their attention to the sight, both echoing the other's gasps as the sight sank in. A part of the city was ablaze, though other buildings obstructed what blew up and where. Some fell immediately, and others stood tall for a while—that much, the group was certain of. "Someone... someone blew up a part of the city!" the three shrieked in unison.

"Someone did what?" Rekka shouted, his cry muffled beneath the layers of tarp.

"Someone blew up a part of the damned city!" Yuuki repeated, pupils becoming naught but meager pinpricks in her violet irises. "We'll have to find another place to hide..."

"In that case, remind me to pump extra lead into whoever decided to make it explode," Rekka snarled beneath the tarps, briefly wiggling before falling still as the van slinked away from the fires and smoothly swerved into a busy intersection.

"Maybe they blew themselves up along with whatever just got demolished," Tenmei snapped. "And if that happened, good luck finding an arm of the bomber to stick on a pike for target practice."

"Would both of you hush already? I'm trying to sleep here!" Koto groaned, her form twitching for a moment or so before she stilled.


	9. Chapter VIII- Emerald Rage

Night settled, and the van slowed to a crawl as it rolled into an ill-illuminated parking lot of a lone warehouse emblazoned by graffiti that sat in the middle of a dense forested road miles and miles away from the nearest city. Kaguya shut off the engine and slumped behind the wheel, noting several bird-masked bodies littering the scene that appeared to be weeks old. "Oh, shit... the Nature's Tengus have been hit already," she groaned, which caused the trio hiding beneath the tarps in the back to shoot up and fling their covers off.

"What are you—" Rekka started, only to stop as he looked outside and noticed the corpses strewn in the lot. "Holy shit... these guys too?"

Takashi's shoulders sagged. "Why would the Onis wipe these guys out? I thought it was Koto and Yuuki they were after," he sighed.

"Dunno, but I am not stepping out of this van to investigate. Kaguya, start the van up again and let's hit the road," Tenmei grumbled with a snort.

"I can't," Kaguya replied, looking at the speedometer with a wide-eyed expression. Specifically, she looked at the fuel gauge, whose hand rested on a big bold 'E.' "The van ran out of gas."

"Oh goody. Y'know, that would've been nice to know SOONER," the one-eyed man snarled, flinging a hand in the air and almost whapping Koto with the appendage as he waved it in exasperation. His arm dropped, and he released a heavy sigh. "Looks like we're staying here for the night."

"But... whoever perpetrated this massacre could still be around," Koto warned, one hand padding around the floorboard beneath the tarps, searching for her weapon.

"The bodies are rotting. Why stay in a place that has potential calling cards?" Rekka retorted, also feeling around for his gun.

"I'll go take a look. If we're lucky, there might be a gas can that we can use to refuel the vehicle," Tenmei sighed, digging around for his crossbow. When he pulled it out, he clambered over the twins and Yuuki and opened the door to let himself out, darting off into the building prior to vanishing with a flourish of his cloak.

"Which leaves us to watch everybody else," Rekka groaned, pulling out his gun and leaning back into the side window. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply.

"I just hope Tenmei doesn't get himself killed," Koto murmured, pulling out her boomerang and shivering at a particularly small corpse with a light green jacket whose face had rotted off. A red beret lay discarded near its head, along with a red frisbee.

"Maybe the Onis didn't attack this place," Mimi piped up, garnering the attention of the Shot and the Siren.

"Then what did?" Rekka huffed.

"This area is surrounded by forest. Maybe a wild animal got them," the female Tanuki replied, only to be met with a dismissive wave of the redhead's hand.

"Probably picking off the corpses, yes. But killing a bunch of armed thugs? I don't see that happening in a thousand years, unless the animal in question packed a lunch, brought some serious help, and gave any possible survivors a dose of rabies," Rekka scoffed, shaking his head firmly as he set his hand back down.

"I... I know that thing," Yuuki piped up, jostling to the side door and stepping out of the vehicle. Rekka scrambled after her, grabbing her shoulder firmly before she could walk a few inches away. She looked down towards the nearest corpse, one with its stomach slashed open and the internal organs strewn messily about, and gestured to a long rod that protruded from its forehead. The woman grabbed it and yanked it out, dragging some rotting brain matter and skull with, and shook the gunk off before eyeballing its rather unusually-shaped end.

"That's... that's a fucking spear," the Shot mumbled, eyes widening in amazement. "Yuuki, how in hell do you know what that is?"

"They... shoved the bladed tip up a place I really did not want it to go," the Yatagarasu answered in a quiet voice, shivering before dropping the weapon. She quickly clambered back in the van, but not before shoving Rekka back inside as well, and she slammed the door shut in the blink of an eye.

Rekka had little time to process the answer; at least, until the door had closed once he realized that Yuuki shouldered straight back in the vehicle. Once his brain managed to acknowledge said answer—and procure several unpleasant scenes in which the spear could've been used for more than stabbing in the process—he swallowed thickly. "I'm... not going to ask."

Everyone jolted as they heard Tenmei let off a rather shrill scream, and exchanged one glance before all of the doors opened and they surged forth into the warehouse, finding the place sparsely lit, terribly barren, and adorned with a wooden floor that splintered. Yuuki briefly paused to gather the spear before joining the others, and she found herself gaping as a hooded man pinned the Tanuki to the ground, the crossbow discarded quite a ways from the scene. The one-eyed sod struggled vehemently, only to stiffen as a katana was pulled from the sheath that rested on his adversary's back and brought dangerously close to his neck.

The figure turned his head to the rest of the group, revealing a face shadowed over by a mask painted to look like a demonic crow. He jumped to his feet and grappled Tenmei with lightning quickness, dragging the cloaked man to a standing position whilst keeping the katana poised to slice the jugular. "Make one move," he warned, his voice muffled by the mask, "and his head comes clean off."

"What do you want?" Rekka hissed, eyes narrowing coldly as he surveyed what he could make of the swordsman's features, noticing a green hoodie sporting beige trimmings and jeans with torn legs.

"Aren't you a member of the Jigoku Ryus? What happened? I thought that gang got disbanded," the figure scoffed, eliciting gasps from Yuuki, Tenmei, the twins, and Koto. "And to answer your question, Red Eyes, I'm wondering what brought you to the remains of MY turf."

"How do you know what gang I was a part of? You could be going off on pure speculation," Rekka argued, a firm frown set into his face. "As for what me and the others are doing here, we've hauled out of the city because... to put it simply, there's a list of complications. Would you like me to name each item on that list?" the redhead added, shaking his head.

"Oh really?" the masked man replied with the faintest and most hollow of chuckles the Shot had ever heard. "I'd rather be spared the monotony of having a proverbial list thrown my way, and..." he paused for a moment, head briefly moving as if his gaze fell on the rest of the group. "Oh, hello... the Oni's daughter is here?" he asked, using his blade to gesture to Koto like it was but an extension of his arm, before promptly returning to hovering it in front of Tenmei's neck.

Rekka's eyes went wide as the man chortled, "How about a trade? Him—" The masked swordsman gestured to Tenmei with his blade before pointing it at Koto, "—for her?"

"What do you want with her?" Tenmei growled through grit teeth, his one eye focused on the blade that gleamed from the light of the outside. "What has..." he paused to choose his words carefully, well aware that he tethered on the brink of being showed to death's doorstep, "what has she ever done to you, personally? Or is it a hatred for her because of who she's related to?"

The masked man threw his head back to let off a hollow laugh that held no mirth, and then he replied in a nonchalant tone, "Oh, it's against her and her alone alright. I'd like to repay her for... a mistake she shouldn't have made."

Koto flinched and stepped back, bringing her boomerang up to her chest as if by instinct. "W-what mistake?" she asked in a shaky voice, her form briefly trembling.

"You know damn well what that is, woman," the swordsman snapped, his voice rising in both volume and levels of unbridled anger. "Don't play dumb."

"I-I have n-no honest clue w-what you're h-harping on about," the Siren spluttered and let off an uneven, nervous laugh, her knees wobbling in the dim light. 

The masked man brought the edge of the katana even closer to Tenmei's neck. "Quit lying," he snarled. "Or do you want this sorry bastard to die?" he added in a chilling, mocking tone.

Instantly, Koto stopped shaking. She lowered her boomerang, her hand clutching the bare end, holding it rather loosely. She took a deep breath and stated in a clear and icy voice, one that hadn't quaked like it did moments ago, "I'll come. Just let Tenmei go."

"What are you—" Tenmei started, but didn't get the chance to finish his question as the katana retracted from his neck and the masked man shouldered him aside, causing him to land face-first in the floor.

"Leave the boomerang," the swordsman stated. "Otherwise, I won't make your demise quick."

Koto threw her weapon at him, watching it spin along the ground before it stopped at his feet. She took a few steps forward, pausing when she stood inches from the masked man before shooting a fond smile at Rekka. The redhead stood there, watching as she approached the swordsman. He gaped when she surged forward in a sprint, faster than the mysterious man had anticipated—and what's more, when she crossed the distance to him, she retrieved her weapon and immediately came out swinging it in a sharp arc.

The man ducked under the attack, thrusting his blade back to retaliate, only to stumble back as the Siren shifted her aim and managed to clock him upside the head. "I'm not going down without a fight! I'm done being useless! _I'm done being pushed around!_ " she cried, clasping the weapon with both hands and hitting the man again like she wielded a baseball bat.

The man backed up further, partly because he found himself in a surprise attack of all things, and partly because the Siren's weapon connected with his chest and forced him into doing so. Upon steering clear of the enraged woman and shaking his head to regain a bit of clarity, he readied his sword and held it up in front of him with both hands firmly grasping the hilt. "Oh, you little cunt," he cursed in a pained wheeze. "Now I'll have to mount your head on a wall!"

Rekka drew his pistol and flicked the safety off before pulling the trigger, barely missing both Koto and the masked would-be assailant. He then sprinted forward to meet with the woman, and fired off another bullet at the man's feet, smirking as he danced out of the way. "Bring it on," he hissed, eyes averting to his companion and catching a flame that burned in her blue irises. "You threaten her or Tenmei, you might as well fuck with _me._ "

Tenmei hauled himself up and ran to retrieve his discarded crossbow, firing off a bolt that whistled through the air and landed in the attacker's forearm. "Gah!" the masked man cried out, one hand removing itself from the hilt of his weapon and flying to the projectile that found its mark.

The Tanuki rushed over to the Shot and Siren, a grin on his own face. "You let yourself get caught off-guard for, what, a second? And then get whapped by a boomerang? _And_ failed to throw my crossbow out the window when you had the chance earlier? For shame," he chastised, firing off another bolt at the man who once held the sword to his throat. His grin faded as the masked swordsman let off a roar before swinging his weapon and knocking the bolt clean out of the air.

"I think we might have awakened the beast," Rekka sighed, his smirk fading. Before anyone could act, Yuuki came up and brought the spear down onto the man, scowling as she narrowly missed his form when he twisted out of the way of her attack.

"Doesn't matter if we've awakened the beast," Koto retorted, a wry smirk on her face. "He's outnumbered four to one. We can take him."

"I'm following her lead—this night forward, I'm not gonna be someone's bitch," Yuuki snarled, her stature hunching a bit as she angled the spear's tip at the group's masked adversary. Her body trembled as she began laughing for a moment, pupils dilating during the giggle fit.

"Rekka, I do believe the girls have snapped," Tenmei noted, briefly glancing at Yuuki just as her laughter had started to die down.

"I was expecting Yuuki to snap sometime later," Rekka conceded, keeping his gaze affixed on the swordsman. "But oh well, let's just make do with what we have here."

The man took the opportunity to dislodge the crossbow bolt that had been implanted in his arm, casting it aside and readying another battle stance, briefly flinching as his wound oozed more blood that stained his jacket as a result. He released another howl and rushed forward, sword held high above his head, ready to cleave someone in half. Koto stepped up and blocked the weapon with her boomerang, causing sparks to fly as steel met with steel, before raising a foot up and landing a hit clean in the man's stomach.

A loud crack rang out and echoed throughout the warehouse, another bloodied hole appearing on the masked man's exposed left shin as he stumbled back some more. He shrieked and rushed again, as if he ignored the pain while preparing to retaliate in kind. The enraged masked man swung his sword in a wide horizontal arc, forcing everyone to retreat a couple of paces. Rekka fired off another bullet, and Tenmei let loose another bolt, only for both to have their breath catch in their throats as the man swung his weapon wildly, effectively knocking one projectile out of the air and cause the other to ricochet off the blade and careen towards another wall.

"Great, he can deflect fucking _bullets,_ " Koto cursed as soon as the figure stopped his wild bout of flailing the sword everywhere. "Rekka, Tenmei, save your ammo and let me and Yuuki handle this unwilling-to-show-his-face lunatic."

"Are you insane?! He could easily disembowel you two with that damn thing!" Tenmei retorted, backing up with Rekka as the bleeding man started swinging again, flinching as a clang rang out when the sword's onslaught was again stopped by the boomerang.

"And I could just as easily crack his head open with one of the teeth on my boomerang," Koto replied, ducking as Yuuki came from behind her in an attempt to impale the adversary with the spear.

The man twisted out of the way, but in doing so, he almost tripped over his own feet. He caught himself in time and stood up, favoring his right leg over his left as he pointed the tip of the katana at the women. "I've heard you were spineless, you blue-haired slut. This little scuffle is making me think otherwise," he hissed. "But once I'm done with you, you'll wish you hadn't come here!"

"I'd let you kiss my ass, but I'm thinking you're hiding an ugly face behind that mask," Koto retorted, again donning a wry smirk. "And besides, I've been out of the prostitution ring for a while now; honestly, even if you were good-looking, I wouldn't let you touch me. You threatened my friends, which is a very bad turn-off, in my honest opinion."

The masked man screamed as he lunged forward again, but the sound morphed into a wail of agony as his right foot landed on the floor the wrong way and twisted with an audible crack. He landed on the splintering wood and rolled onto his back, making to stand up before the boomerang pinned him to the floor by the neck, its ends and teeth sinking into the aged bark as a knife would gouge the flesh. Yuuki scrambled over and sat on his chest, making sure to use her legs to keep his arms likewise on hold.

"Who are you?" the purple-eyed woman growled, one hand moving to grab the beak of the mask the man wore.

"It... doesn't matter," he answered in a blunt but pained voice. "You've all won. I'm probably going to die anyway, so I refuse to humor you."

Yuuki responded by prying off the mask and casting it aside, whereupon it shattered like china as soon as it hit the floor. She was met with a thin, pale face partly covered by thick green and messy hair swept to the right, and an eye of similar hue looking up at her without even the faintest of a shimmer within the void. The shopkeepers and twins rushed over, forming a circle of sorts around the sod.

"Who are you?" she repeated as Rekka stepped forward to kick the katana away before kneeling down and pointing the barrel of the gun at the now-unmasked man's forehead.

"The last... of the Tengus," the man replied, unflinching as the barrel of the gun pressed into his head. "The Onis... they came here. Just gunned everyone down, took every single thing out of this warehouse, and left. They shot me as well... I expected myself to die."

"We could tell that, by the mask and the still-rotting bodies outside. What we want is a _name,_ dammit," Tenmei growled, using his crossbow to prod at one of the trapped man's exposed legs.

"Nickname, or birth?" the emerald-haired man replied nonchalantly. "You're not being very specific."

"It doesn't matter," Koto answered as Tenmei opened his mouth to speak.

The man donned a calm smile, yet on his face it just looked plain wrong. "Nagare," he stated simply.

Rekka retracted his gun. "That's a start," he sighed. "Now, how do you know about the Jigoku Ryus, what on earth did Koto do to upset you so bad, and why in fuck did the Onis show up here?"

"He said they looted everything. If such is the case, then where'd the katana come from?" Tenmei piped up with an indignant huff.

Nagare licked his lips, giving a faint wince before he spoke, "In order, there's a magical thing called newspapers, Little Miss Blue Hair upset my now-dead boss, and I don't know why the Onis decided to come here. Regarding my katana, I found a corpse in the woods not too far from here and it had the weapon."

By now, three sets of eyes fell on Koto. The Siren flinched and swallowed thickly, briefly sharing a look with Nagare. He returned her gaze with a frown and eyes that flickered, and he mouthed, _"Just play along."_

She turned back to the other three before elaborating, "I, uh, refused to service the Tengus. Their boss was a pedophile."

"Fair enough," Rekka groaned with a nod before turning his attention back to Nagare. "How about a truce?"

The Tengu's eyes widened. "I-I beg your pardon?" he stuttered.

"A truce," Rekka repeated. "You stop attacking us, and we'll stop attacking you. Hell, we'll even find some way to get the bullet out of your leg and patch up your wounds. The five of us—nine, counting the three women and the man who didn't partake in the scuffle—are in the same boat as you."

"The Onis are after us, and they've joined with the Abyssal Yatagarasu Fellowship," Tenmei added, watching as Nagare's eyes widened still. "And before you ask why I've mentioned the Fellowship, let's just say one of their runaway hookers currently has you pinned by the arms right now."

The Tengu's eyes fell on Yuuki. "I... is it true?" he asked.

"Damn straight it is," the Yatagarasu answered, eyes narrowing to violet slits. "Now, are you gonna agree to the truce, or do we have to impale you on a pike first?"

Nagare opened his mouth to answer, but before a single word left his lips, a soft tune filled the air. A tune that consisted of little more than a piano, and what sounded like a girl screaming.


	10. Chapter IX- Fireworks

Tenmei pulled out the phone, grumbling to himself about pianos as the incessant tune continued to rattle from the speakers for a full minute before falling silent. He eyed the screen of the flip-form device, seeing a number he didn't recognize.

Followed up by a text. "Well, this phone needs to be thrown into the nearest pond now," he stated simply, garnering the attention of everyone else, including the still-pinned-on-the-floor Tengu.

"Why's that?" Rekka asked, standing up and approaching the Tanuki with a brow raised.

"A text came onto this phone from someone identifying himself as the Oni, and he's asking where the hell two young women are," Tenmei answered, shaking his head and throwing the device as hard as he could to the floor. When it failed to snap into pieces, he drew his crossbow and fired two bolts into its frame, watching it sizzle and spark for a moment before its circuitry ceased to function.

"We have to leave as soon as we can. I accept the truce; could you two please get off me, now?" Nagare piped up, his voice tinged with a heavy sense of rattled alarm, irritation, and urgency. Yuuki and Koto obliged his request, and he sat up with a grunt as the Shot turned to him.

"Are you panicking?" the redhead asked, and he found himself wishing he could take his question back.

"That phone's probably been rigged with a GPS tracker. If we don't haul out of here as soon as we can, then we'll be fucked over in ways even I wouldn't wish upon my worst enemies," the Tengu replied with a pained huff as the shopkeepers hauled him off the ground and held him up by the shoulders.

"The vehicle we arrived in has ran out of fuel," Kaguya informed the wounded man.

Nagare cursed under his breath, only to stop with a hiss of pain as Takashi faltered for a moment, allowing his bad foot to touch the floor. He smiled, though, in spite of the agony and the current situation. He used a hand to gesture to the area his katana had been kicked at and said, "Look in the darkest corner there. Look there and tell me what you find."

"Assuming we find _anything_ in this place, seeing as it's so damn empty I could fit a house here," Rekka murmured to himself as he strode on to the katana. Walking over the blade and ensuring that he didn't accidentally slice himself in the process, he found himself embraced by deepest black. Pawing around, his hands fell on something cold, metallic, and reverberating with hollow thuds every time he touched it. Exploring this phenomenon further, his hand slipped through a raised ledge of sorts with a hole that made it thin.

He grinned as his fingers curled around it, and he flung open something and thrust his other hand inside whatever it was he'd found, finding something else with a handle to grab. His smirk broadened as he heard liquid sloshing inside the object as he hefted it up. "The Onis didn't loot everything! I may have found the jackpot!" he called to the others.

Mimi and Mimu rushed over to him, hopping over the fallen sword on their way to the Shot. "Really?" they asked in pitch-perfect unison, eyes glimmering with the faintest of hopes that managed to shine through the sable.

"See for yourself," Rekka answered, handing them the object. Mimi grasped it and ran back to the others, the dim light illuminating a faint red and vaguely rectangular-shaped thing with a screw-cap tube jutting out of one end. He reached into the thing he opened again and pulled out another container, also sloshing with liquid, and handed that to the other twin before she nabbed it and ran to meet the others.

"Holy shit, this may be our luckiest break yet," Tenmei chortled, eyeing the canisters the twins held. He turned to Nagare and smiled. "Did you put the canisters under lock and key yourself?"

"The boss did, actually. He ate the key, too. I just cut open his body and unlocked the locker over there; I planned to burn this place down once I found a lighter," Nagare answered with a nod.

Rekka felt around in the darkness and found just two more liquid-filled canisters, and he nabbed them both before returning to the rest of the group. "The Onis took the cars, I take it?" he asked.

"Motorcycles, but yes, those got taken as well," Nagare sighed, shaking his head. He eyed the fuel canisters the twins and redhead held for a moment before turning to Tenmei and asking, "What sort of car did you come in on?"

"A van, and not a miniature one, either," Tenmei replied.

The Tengu smiled. "Oh good, I was afraid I'd have to sit in someone's lap."

"Let's just load the van with the gas, take the extra with us, and haul out of here. If the phone does have a GPS tracking chip as Nagare suspects it to be laden with, then we need to get out as soon as possible," Tenmei sighed, shaking his head. "And Yuuki, go ahead and retrieve the katana; Emerald Hair's gonna need it."

"Might I pay my last respects to my former gang members before we leave? Since it's going to take a few minutes to fill the gas tank of your vehicle, I feel I should do it tonight, before I find myself unable to do so," Nagare sighed in a quiet voice, his smile fading.

Tenmei held his gaze for a moment before somberly nodding. "I understand. We'll give you a few moments to... to honor the deceased. They deserve that much before you permanently part with them," he answered, his tone equally as hushed. "If you want to, take whatever memorabilia you can scavenge. But pack light; we can't afford to carry every little thing, because even though the van is huge, it still has limited space."

"Understood," Nagare said simply, nodding in confirmation.

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The van rolled on, passing several dense trees before it eventually slowed and stopped on a dirt parking space that could only fit three cars at best. Kaguya shut off the engine and released a lengthy yawn. "I don't know about you guys, but I am beat," she sighed, fumbling about with her seat until she found a lever and yanked it up. She leaned back, pushing the seat with, stopping just shy of Mimi's face. Takashi mimicked the movement and put his hands on his stomach.

"Check the doors; make sure they're all locked. I'd rather we don't get attacked while we're asleep," Tenmei ordered, nodding to himself with a grin when the others did as asked and confirmed that the doors were locked.

"This space is cramped. Then again, I should be grateful I have a place to sleep in that I can rest my foot on," Nagare grumbled to himself, his bad foot propped on the back seat, the red beret held tightly in one hand.

"It could be worse," Rekka pointed out, laying down next to the green-haired man with his hands behind his head.

"He's right. Let's just take it easy for the moment," Koto agreed, also laying down. A tarp folded into a tightly-packed square rested under her head, and her hands slinked up to her collarbone.

"I don't think the cops can find us here. As far as I know, this lot we're in was barely used," Tenmei interjected, causing the Shot and the Siren to shoot him dual looks.

"That's good to hear," the redhead sighed with a small smile.

"However," the Tanuki began anew, once more getting looks from the redhead and blue-eyed woman, in addition to the Tengu. "We're in old Yatagarasu territory; they're not using it per se, but they might still be keeping tabs on it."

"They abandoned it altogether once they got ahold of me," Yuuki retorted from the back seat, and the eyes of those who went seatless fell on her. She waved them off with a dismissive hand and added, "If you'd like to know more about the Fellowship, go ahead and ask. They were dumb enough to relay their plans to each other as they had their fun with me."

Rekka sat bolt upright, a brow raised. "You're kidding," he said.

"Wish I was," Yuuki replied with a huff. "Go ahead: _ask._ "

"What's their grandest plan that you know of?" Koto interjected, turning to lay on her side with a huff.

"Expansion of drug cartels, of prostitution rings... basically, they want more territory," Yuuki replied, leaning back into the seat with a sigh. "Oh, and complete control of the police districts."

"Why the police districts? Isn't that a bad idea?" Nagare questioned, finding himself under a scrutinizing gaze of violet as soon as he finished speaking.

"It would be," Yuuki began in a low voice, "if not for the absurd amount of illegal weapons the cops confiscate on a day-to-day basis. By having control of the districts, they could have access to very dangerous firearms and swords, if it strikes their fancy."

"So, by taking over the policed areas, they'd become very powerful. Joy, this is the last thing we needed," Tenmei grumbled, laying down and pulling his hat over his face.

"And they'd also get access to otherwise-restricted areas, thereby accruing more weapons and key points that are easy to defend. Looks like the whole damn nation of Nippon has gone to hell in a handbasket," Rekka conceded, laying down again. He stiffened when Koto rolled over to face him, but relaxed when she did nothing more than stare at him.

"So, what happened to the Jigoku Ryus?" the Siren asked, causing the Shot to stiffen again.

"I'd... rather not talk about it," the redhead mumbled, turning away from her gaze... only to meet that of Nagare's.

"Don't worry, I won't press you for information. Besides, I can tell you're fidgeting with just a glance," the Tengu sighed in a low, gentle tone. "The newspapers told me a hell of a lot before that mess got dropped when the Oni decided to make himself a true terror in the streets."

Rekka nodded and closed his eyes. He went stiff again as Koto scooched closer to him, and he groaned, "Woman, we've been over this already."

"Yuuki's decided to squish herself between me and Tenmei. Take that up with her," Koto replied defensively. The Shot sat up again and looked at her, only to find the Yatagarasu had indeed decided to climb into the back and take a spot between the Siren and the Tanuki. He laid down again, moaning in exasperation before drifting off to a rather uncomfortable sleep.

Hours passed, though it felt like days. A soft vibration and muted whispers filled the air around the Shot as he slept in deepest of black. He didn't care where he was or where he headed, not when this absolute darkness kept him firmly in place. Eventually, the vibrations and murmurs ceased to be in the void, leaving him to his own devices. For a moment, he felt numb, only to jump awake with wide eyes and accidentally hit his head on something when he felt a hand trail where it really didn't need to go.

He looked down, vision bleary, and shifted a bit before blinking the fog away from his eyes. He sighed and rose the hand that threatened to touch his junk, inhaling as he realised that said hand was his own. He turned his head to absorb his surroundings, and found himself to be in a quaint room of some kind. There was a television leaning against one end of a wall, some dressers and nightstands scattered here and there, and the bed he had found himself upon was a relatively large one adorned with quilts.

He took a moment to process this and proceeded to jump out of the bed, flinching as he heard a door creak open from behind. Rekka whirled around, only to relax as Koto peeked in from an open door that lead to another room. "Morning, sleepyhead. As far as hiding places go, we all lucked out," she said.

"Where are we?" the man asked, a brow raised as he gestured around the room for emphasis.

"Abandoned motel on a road overlooking a beach," Koto answered, smiling when the redhead nodded. "You were out for a while, so I figured I'd lug you to bed myself. The others have claimed other rooms nearby, and we've been unwinding a bit while you dozed."

Rekka opened his mouth to speak, but he flinched as his stomach began aching and gurgling. Koto giggled, but fell silent when he asked, "How are we on the food front?"

"Tenmei took the twins and Yuuki to forage. There's a small town nearby, and he said they should be back before dark," the Siren answered, stepping into the room and stretching her arms over her head.

"Alright. Does this place have water and electricity running?" the Shot asked, turning to the television set.

"Tenmei had to amend that, but yes, this place is up and running now. I was thinking about taking a bath; this place is stocked with good soap bars and shampoo," Koto sighed, flinching with a hint of a blush when the man turned back to her. Rekka approached her and put a hand on her shoulder. "I tho—" she began, only for his other hand to hover over her lips, silencing her on the spot.

"You said earlier you dragged me in here yourself?" he asked, an amused grin spreading on his face.

"Y-yes," she answered as soon as the hand left her mouth. "N-no offense, but I was surprised I could carry you by my lonesome."

Rekka's grin widened. "I'm built like a stick, not like a jock," he stated, moving his head just a bit to stare into her eyes. "You probably built more muscle than I did."

Koto's blush deepened, and she giggled nervously. "W-why are you l-looking at me like th-that?" she spluttered, only to stiffen when he gently pushed her back against the nearest wall.

Rekka leaned in close, his nose just an inch from hers. "I've been... thinking during the whole road trip yesterday," he began in a low, gentle voice. Still keeping one hand on her shoulder, he watched her fidget and squirm for a bit before adding, "Namely, over what needed to be done once another hiding spot had been found."

"This... isn't about food or running water, right?" Koto asked, briefly halting her bout of writhing as a flicker sparked in the crimson eyes that stared deep into her blue ones.

"Close, but no cigar," Rekka replied, leaning back and relinquishing his hold on her shoulder. "It seems you're also against being touched."

"How did you—" Koto began, eyes widening as a hand rose up and shushed her again.

"Your body language. You were twitching like someone strapped you to a jackhammer and left it on for a few hours straight," Rekka answered, sending her a small grin. He moved and sat on the bed, keeping his gaze fixed on her. "You just weren't as... you're nowhere near as fidgety and loud as I am about it."

"So, you're saying..." she trailed off when the redhead nodded.

"We found some common ground," he said simply.

Koto donned a smile of her own. She opened her mouth to say something, only for whatever reply she had to die in her throat as another door opened, through which Yuuki entered the room. The Yatagarasu grinned, and she leaned against a wall before deciding to speak, "We're back, and Tenmei's wondering where the fuck you two are."

The Shot and Siren turned to her with matching grins. "Tell him we'll be out in a bit, and that I woke up five minutes ago," Rekka answered. The violet-eyed girl nodded and bustled out through the door, followed in short order by the two in the room. They found themselves in a parking lot that was almost empty; the black van parked nearby and back doors wide open.

Tenmei stood next to the van for a moment before noticing Rekka and Koto approaching the vehicle. "What all did you find?" Koto asked once she and the Shot crossed the distance to the van. She peered into the back through the windows, noticing an assortment of goods that ranged from lidded plastic containers tightly wrapped in another layer of plastic to small crates that were opened, which held smaller boxes within.

"Crossbow bolts, bullets, food, two packs of water, and bandages, a cast, and ice packs for Nagare's bad foot," the Tanuki answered with a grin. "Oh, and get this: the nearby town's got a gathering place for the Yatagarasus. It was empty, so I went and raided that with Yuuki. You're not gonna believe what I managed to get my hands on."

"Wait a second, the nearby town's an outpost for the Fellowship, and you took Yuuki to it and got shit from it?" Rekka asked, eyes widening to the size of saucers as he absorbed this information. Tenmei nodded and rushed to the back of the van before returning with a bundle of wires and dynamite adorned with a little keypad.

"They had explosives. A whole lot of this shit. And I went and took what I could and rigged the rest to blow later tonight, with the twins' help. One of the locals told me a lot of the higher-ups in the Fellowship are due for a gathering of some sort at 1 AM sharp. He didn't even know who I was, which is a bonus," Tenmei answered, his smile widening a substantial margin.

"Holy shit, dude. Can we attend the fireworks show later tonight?" Koto asked, eyes gleaming with some kind of emotion.

"Yes. We're going to be attending the place anyway; namely, to pump any survivors of the blast with lead and bolts. Feel free to pack your boomerang and bash faces in," Tenmei answered, his eye likewise glinting with a flicker of emotion.

Rekka donned a wicked smirk. "Oh, sign me up! I'd love to see some of those fuckers roast any day of the week!" he declared.

"Alright. Now, let's finish unpacking the van so we can start on the waiting game," Tenmei conceded, his smirk also morphing into one of a wicked nature.

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The minute hand ticked down on a small watch Tenmei held as he leaned against a brick-formed wall of a building, with the van parked in a nearby road, and Rekka and Koto standing next to him. The cloak and two sets of hair billowed briefly in a passing breeze, chilling their owners for a moment or so. Across the street, with a wide lot all to itself, stood a wood-and-stone building whose parking space was packed with cars. Many of said cars were silver-colored Sedans, while others were black trucks, though all sported three-legged birds painted on the hoods.

Rekka stretched his arms and popped his neck, glancing upwards at the star-covered sky. "So, how much firepower are we talking here?" he asked as his arms dropped to his sides.

"Enough C4 to fill a small room. To put it simply, that building and maybe its entire parking lot will be wiped off the face of the planet. Other than the bombs, the girls and I found nothing of use. Unless you count whatever weapons the bunch of Fellowship members have brought with them into the area across from us," Tenmei answered, gaze affixed on the tiny watch as it continued to tick.

"I think I hear a commotion going on over yonder," Koto remarked as men began shouting in droves in the distance. She donned a smirk and turned to one side, seeing where her boomerang, as well as the men's gun and crossbow, rested against the wall. She scooped it up, and handed Rekka and Tenmei their weapons from the spots they had been laid at.

"Aaaaaand..." Tenmei paused, turning his attention from the watch to the building in the distance as a series of violent explosions erupted from within, quickly engulfing the lot and a handful of the vehicles with a raging inferno and black smoke. "Time!" he cried, cramming the watch into a pocket under his cloak before brandishing his crossbow with gusto. He eyed several black forms darting here and there amidst the burning yellows and reds, but only one or two kept standing for a full minute or so before they fell over, while others collapsed in seconds.

"So, we wait for the funeral pyre to die down a bit before cleaning up every survivor we come across?" Rekka asked, smirking triumphantly as the inferno roiled about vehemently. The building took another hit from an explosion that decided to arrive a little later, and collapsed onto itself in a blazing heap of debris. The nearest cars exploded next as the blaze swept over them and the sweltering heat crept into the fuel tanks, all shooting up like rockets before crashing back down to earth and smashing upon the concrete, a myriad of car alarms wailing in unison thereafter.

"What, you wanna get a burnt hand? Be my guest; otherwise, stay put," Tenmei replied, chuckling.

"The explosions probably killed them all off anyway. Nobody would live something like that, especially if cars go flying like bottle rockets," Koto stated, only to be met with a chuckle from the Tanuki.

"If I can live a man-made landslide that was triggered by explosions, then someone can live this mess," Tenmei retorted, grinning deviously.

"I feel sorry for Yuuki and Nagare. Look at this; this is something they wouldn't want to miss," Rekka interjected, waving a hand at the destroyed heap where a building and half a parking lot once stood for emphasis.

"Fair point, but that also means we have bragging rights," Tenmei replied, turning to the Shot as his smirk widened. His smile faded when sirens began blaring in the distance. "Shit, get to the van now!" he cried, and the trio ran made haste as they jumped into the waiting van. The Tanuki turned on the engine and the vehicle whirred to life and sped away into the night, leaving behind the aftermath that kept on scorching a wide spot on the concrete and all upon it.

Rekka continued to smirk, watching the wreckage even as it faded away in the distance. "How many do you think we got?" he asked, a childish glee burning in his eyes which reflected the flames, giving him a rather demonic expression.

"At least several dozen. This'll greatly damper the Yatagarasus, even if there are survivors. If anything, it'll take them weeks to fix that huge heap of rubble, and salvage whatever they can, which I doubt would be very much," Tenmei answered, snorting.

"But would it also damper the Onis?" Koto inquired, earning a chuckle from both men.

Rekka put his hand on her shoulder and patted it gently. "Are you kidding? If some of those brutes attended whatever it was they wanted to do in that building, then they'll also have some problems stemming from the building that exploded," he replied, turning to her with a widening grin.

"And that building was likely a key location for both gangs, or a storage facility at the very least. Frankly, I'm amazed they left it unattended for a few hours straight, and with explosives to boot. Me and the twins had ample time to scatter the bombs and rig them for maximum damage," Tenmei added, laughing as the van found itself wheeling down a contorted road. After a few hours of driving away flew by—during which time the sun started creeping up over the horizon—a derelict motel constructed of aged wood and stone came into view. It was equipped with a first-floor balcony-like platform and its outside lights stripped off . The building was overlooking a beach, and it stood next to a road affixed on a high cliff that shielded the parking lot from any passersby who wanted to see it from said beach down below.


	11. Chapter X- Dragon

Rekka leaned against a wall, sighing as a steady rain of warm water hailed unto him from a showerhead. The walls surrounding him were fortunately opaque, meaning he had little to worry about the problem that showers with crystal clear walls always seemed to have with peeping toms. He closed his eyes, sighing deeply, long red hair draped loosely over both shoulders. An aroma of steam and scented suds hung in the air, though the latter scent was fast dissipating as the showerhead continued to soak him with its seemingly-endless torrent.

He jolted and went wide-eyed as he slid on the heels of his feet, bumping face-first into the sliding opaque door that had kept him isolated from all that was outside—because someone not in the room started calling out to him with a somewhat-muffled feminine voice. "Rekka, are you in there?"

"Yeah, Koto, I'm in here taking a shower. What do you want?" Rekka called back as soon as he pried himself from the door, rubbing one of his cheeks with a hand.

The door to the bathroom opened, and the Shot could make out a pale shape with blue around the top. He stiffened when the door closed behind said shape, and footsteps thudded lightly on the floor as the woman outside came closer to the opaque barrier separating them. "Is Tenmei trying to get you to see me naked or something?" he asked, grabbing the handle of the barrier as if by instinct.

"No, I just came here to use the toilet," Koto replied, her form stopping just shy of the barrier.

"Oh, alright. Go ahead," Rekka murmured, his hand falling from the handle. He backed away and returned to leaning against the wall, eyes closing again as the sound of clothes rustling hit his ears, followed by liquid being poured into more liquid, though both sounds were almost drowned out by the showerhead. The intensity of the torrent lessened when the toilet flushed, enabling him to better hear for the rustling of garments.

Or lack thereof, as he immediately found out. His eyes snapped open as the door slid open, and before he could act, Koto waltzed right in and slammed it shut behind her. The naked woman sent him a serene smile and said, "I figured we'd share a shower. And no, I won't touch you."

 _"Ah, shit, she caught me off-guard. Well played, Koto, well played,"_ Rekka mentally groaned, responding to her with nothing more than a silent nod of his head. He watched as she picked up a soap bar and started scrubbing her body with it, noting she made more vigorous motions every time she ran into a scar. There weren't many scars on her frame, but the ones present had stood out well, especially the one on her left shoulder.

Deciding to stop staring, he asked, "So, why'd you want a shower?"

"I realized I was dirty while I was on the toilet," Koto answered, moving under the torrent of water to rinse the suds off. 

The Shot glanced down at her feet, and the suds were a very dark grimy grey in color. _"At least she backed that up."_

"Looks like I'll need another layer of soap," the Siren remarked, stepping out of the water with a giggle that died when the man turned his back to the door, revealing a dark brown patch of skin that stretched from shoulders to hip, and a series of aged black markings forming a scaled serpent that breathed fire. "Is that... a dragon on your back?" she asked in a low tone.

"Yes," Rekka murmured quietly. "I didn't want it on my back, but it's there. It's been there for years. Nagare was... right, Koto. I was a Ryu."

Koto's gaze fell, and she resumed washing herself with a small sigh. "So... the Ryus branded you..."

"... like the Yatagarasus did to Yuuki," Rekka finished for her. "This is... part of the reason why my hair's so long. It's a scar I want to be rid of. It's part of why I was alone, until I met you—I wanted to get away from it all." He stiffened when Koto yelped as she accidentally dropped the soap bar, then slid on it with her foot, crashing into his back and forcing him to place a hand on a wall for balance.

"Sorry," she mumbled, prying herself from his back before retrieving the bar and setting it aside. "I slipped."

"I understand. I lost count over how many times I clocked my head against a wall after the soap bar ran away," the Shot replied, turning to her and watching as she slipped on some stray suds, this time landing on her back with a pained groan. "You okay?" he asked.

"I'll live," the Siren replied with a nod. She made to stand up again, but stiffened when she realized how she had been positioned, in addition to remembering whose shower she intruded. "I-uh..."

"What, you expecting me to mount you here and now?" Rekka asked, smirking when the woman nodded.

"O-only if you want to," she mumbled, her tone so hushed the running water drowned her voice out.

"What was that?" Rekka mused, his smirk widening.

"Only if you want," Koto repeated, this time louder. She stood up, shivering despite the warmth of the torrent of water that still hailed upon her. "Eee!" she cried as a pair of arms wrapped around her waist and pushed her against a wall.

"I'll humor you just this once—unless you want to be the dominant one?" Rekka whispered into her ear, still grinning.

Koto shot a glance over her shoulder, smirking wickedly. She whirled around in his grasp and shoved him to the door effortlessly. "I could heft you over my shoulders right now," she chirped.

"Lugging me into a bed, I can get with that. Hefting me over your shoulders? That I doubt," Rekka chortled, grabbing the woman's hand and twirling her around before locking his arms around her waist again.

Koto responded with a giggle, but the sound died as another door opened. She twisted in an attempt to peer past Rekka's shoulders, cursing silently when she remembered that the shower door had been closed.

"Am I missing something here?" Tenmei called out, causing both to freeze. The two paled as footsteps echoed from outside, loud and fast and increasing in volume.

"N-no," Rekka managed to splutter, his voice causing the footsteps to stop. He calmed himself a bit and asked in a clear, unsteady voice, "You need something, Tenmei?"

"Once you're done, I need to show you something. It's pretty urgent," Tenmei answered. A silence fell, but in a moment the Tanuki outside broke it, "Is Koto in there with you?"

The Shot and Siren exchanged a glance, then the latter spoke up, "Y-yes. I-I keep slipping."

"Alright, alright. Don't let the shower beat you up," Tenmei sighed, and with that, the sound of retreating footsteps echoed into the room, punctuated by the sound of a door closing.

"Next time, the door's getting locked," Rekka mumbled, drawing a heavy sigh. Koto nodded in agreement and slipped out of his grasp, sending him a small, if uncertain, smile accompanied by a flicker in her eyes.

"Let's hurry and get clean before Tenmei gets impatient. He sounded... ah, antsy," Koto replied, her smile faltering as the redhead nodded.

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"Look who decided to show up," Nagare remarked, sitting at a table surrounded by chairs with the others as Rekka and Koto strode inside the otherwise-empty waiting room, shutting the door behind them. His bad foot had been propped on another chair, and Yuuki sat on the other side of him.

The Yatagarasu eyed the arrivals expectantly, an arm propped up and her cheek resting in her hand. She watched as they sat down and glanced at everyone else, shooting brief glares at Tenmei who merely smiled back and chortled. "What happened to make them sour?" she asked, turning to the one-eyed man with a brow raised.

"That's not important," Tenmei replied, reaching into his cloak and producing two stacks of papers, one of which had been rolled up. He unfurled it, revealing it to be a news article that he then slid towards Kaguya. He gazed at the shopkeeper as her face paled, nodding as she handed the paper to Takashi. The paper then was passed around the table, until Yuuki managed to obtain it from Nagare.

The violet-haired woman read the article. "Ah, shit. The building that got firebombed last night's made the news," she mumbled with a scowl. She passed the paper to Koto, who gave it one look before shuffling it to Rekka.

The Shot stared at the paper, and he immediately glowered. The headline read, in big bold letters, **'Abyssal Yatagarasus Murdered by Onis; Crossbow Heads Found in Mafia Leader's Corpse,'** complete with two pictures—one of the building that got turned to rubble. The other picture, however, was more grotesque, detailing a rotting corpse that had decayed so much Rekka had trouble making out the features. The corpse laid on a table in the photo shoot, and sitting next to its head were small and pointy objects that glinted a dulled gold in color.

Slowly, the redhead turned to Tenmei. "How did the crossbow bolt heads get into the second picture?" he asked, his tone dark.

"My gang and the Kitsunes were fighting a lot. During one such fight, I managed to get to Matsuki during the confusion, and I found that he lived a slit throat, so I decided to finish him off. I left with the bolts... now that I think about it, I should've looked at the damned things more closely," Tenmei answered, shaking his head.

Rekka nodded and leaned back in the chair, shoving the article to the center of the table. He gestured to the other stack of papers Tenmei still had on him. "And what's that?" he continued with a huff.

Tenmei answered by shoving the stack of papers to Kaguya. The process of handing papers began anew, but this time halted when Nagare got his hands on them and flipped through them. "Joy, it must be some kind of holiday already," he remarked in a sarcastic tone before giving Yuuki the sheaf.

The Yatagarasu fiddled with the papers, an unreadable look on her face. "I'm not sure what kind of holiday would grant us this kind of shit," she stated, sliding the sheaf towards Koto. "Must be a pretty bad one."

"I don't know what you two are..." Koto trailed off as she shimmied through the stack, eyes widening. She handed the papers to Rekka, who went through them.

"... Wanted posters. It took them long enough," Rekka scoffed, treating the stack as he had the news article; by way of sending it to the middle of the table. He turned his attention back on Tenmei and ventured with words, "Where'd you get your hands on them?"

"Went to the town a few miles away and did some snooping around. I kept to the alleys, and found the posters tacked on walls," the male Tanuki answered, a glint in his eye. He frowned and gestured to the stack, "What I'm wondering is how the press got pictures of you, me, Koto, Nagare, and Yuuki. That's what's been bugging me."

"I don't know, but I'm going to blame yesterday's little raid," Nagare chimed in, grinning as Tenmei turned a critical eye to him.

"You didn't partake in it," the Tanuki snapped.

"But I did," Yuuki retorted. "Someone could've seen us. Frankly, I'm impressed there aren't wanted posters of Mimi and Mimu."

"Maybe those posters haven't printed yet," Mimi added, shooting the Yatagarasu a smirk. It fell as she went on, "But Ten has a point."

"The Onis," Kaguya interjected in a low tone, instantly garnering the attention of the others. She assumed a serious look and went on, "Now that posters have been produced, his men are likely to see them."

"Which means they'll know who and what to watch for, which will be very easy for them to do, given the distinct features five of us possess," Takashi stated, frowning and shaking his head. "And that newspaper article is very likely going to add fuel to the proverbial pyre those assholes are probably building for us."

"Wait, hold up," Mimu began, stopping until she was sure all attention had been diverted her way. "The paper said that the Onis killed the Yatagarasus, right?"

"Doesn't change the fact we're in boiling water, but what of it?" Koto groaned, a hard frown on her visage.

"Maybe the Onis were planning to off the Yatagarasus from the start. I mean, who'd plant enough bombs to fill a small room floor to ceiling and leave that shit just lying around? Or, perhaps it was the other way 'round," Mimu answered, grinning.

Koto's eyes widened. She turned to Yuuki and asked, "Did the Onis and Yatagarasus have a stable friendship?"

"I was thrown between the gangs like a ping-pong ball. Fuck if I know," Yuuki answered with a shrug. "The Onis were tight-lipped, and the Yatagarasus were walking chatterboxes."

"Anyway, we offed the Yatagarasus, and the Onis didn't. But the papers says the other gang did. Ten, you think the press made an error or something?" Mimu continued, garnering a chuckle from her fellow Tanuki.

"For all we know, the Onis could've ran around saying they did it. But then," Tenmei paused, turning to Yuuki with another spark igniting in his iris, "how did the C4 come into the equation?"

Rekka also turned to Yuuki. "You know anything about the bombs?" he asked, eyes narrowing when the purple-eyed girl shook her head. "Nothing?"

"No. I was with the Oni's men before I got away from them," Yuuki answered simply.

"Maybe the Yatagarasus realised they basically told you everything and shooed you off. After all, the Oni's men are ruthless sons of bitches and had a greater chance of keeping you hushed. Evidently, though, it seems that backfired on them—big time," Nagare piped up, eyes also falling on the Yatagarasu present.

"How'd you manage to scramble away?" Koto asked in a worried tone, frowning when Yuuki gave a brief shudder.

"They... took me to a bar. Most of them got smashed. The ones who stayed sober didn't keep watch on me until I was already out," Yuuki answered in a hushed tone of voice. "After that, I ran for an entire day, hiding and resting when I could. It was..." she paused to swallow thickly, "a fucking nightmare."

"I know the feeling," Koto sighed, shooting Yuuki a small grin.

"Alright ladies, back on topic," Tenmei interjected, garnering the attention of the women who looked at him and nodded. "As per usual, we're gonna have to lay low. But there's a problem with that," he added.

"That being...?" Rekka trailed off, raising a brow.

"The van," Tenmei stated. "This motel's got a parking lot in plain sight, and our ride is smack-dab in the middle of it. On one side of us is a small town, and the other a forest a few miles from the city that is infested with the Kuchisake's men. Face it, unless we do something, we'll get flushed out and fucked in every unpleasant sense of the word."

"Would camouflage be a good idea?" Takashi asked, a hopeful glint in his eyes.

Tenmei was quick to answer, "No. Likely, the Onis will do to the forest what they did to whatever the hell Yuuki saw crumbling—blow it up and burn it to the ground. And then they'll find the van and fuck that up too, if we went through with the camouflage." He rubbed his temples with one hand, removing the hat with the other and setting it on the table. "We have to do something less... obvious."

"Y'think we can take over the small town or something?" Nagare suggested in a calm tone of voice.

Tenmei wasted no time in shooting that idea down with his next response, "Too little of us to do that. We're outnumbered on all sides, Nagare. Besides, you're currently crippled; you haven't seen the activity buzzing a few miles away yet."

Takashi turned to the door of the room, a brow raised as the doorknob started jiggling. "Did someone lock the door?" he asked in a quiet voice.

"No," Rekka answered in a whisper, also turning to the door.

Kaguya stood up and walked over to the frame. The door opened just enough that she could see a sliver of what was outside, and she immediately backpedaled away as the door opened fully. A big burly man strode into the room, a grin on his face. The man eyed the group, his smirk widening as he spotted Yuuki before directing his attention to Rekka. 

He made to speak, but instead gargled as Tenmei reached under the table to grab something and haul it up, revealing it to be his crossbow. He fired one bolt and hit the man squarely in the throat, and shot another bolt that landed between his eyes for good measure. 

The new arrival fell over, thrashing for a moment before falling still. The Tanuki rushed over with the crossbow in hand and examined the corpse as Kaguya shut and locked the door. He began cursing under his breath as he spotted a mark on the back of the bulky man's hand.

"Rekka, c'mere for a sec," Tenmei stated. The Shot leapt from his seat and did as he was told, kneeling down next to the one-eyed man and spotting the mark. The redhead paled, noticing that the mark was long and serpentine in shape, looking as if it breathed fire.

"A Ryu," Rekka mumbled, pupils dilating in seconds. He turned to Tenmei and asked, "What do we do now?"

Tenmei sent Rekka a smirk. "We defend the fort, that's what. I'll head outside and see if there's any more hubbub going on. Where's your pistol?" he asked.

Rekka rose a hand and patted at one of his hips with it. "On me, and loaded," he answered. "I'll stay and defend everyone else."

"How'd he get here?" Koto asked, standing up and walking to the corpse with her arms crossed.

"It's what I'm going to find out," Tenmei answered, jumping to his feet and running to the door—only to stagger once his face collided with it. He held his head for a moment, swaying as imaginary ducks circled his cranium before he shook off his dizziness. Spotting that the door had been locked thanks to a twist mechanism, he undid the contraption and properly made his way out of his room.

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Tenmei darted along the extensive balcony of the first floor, his one eye darting to and fro for anything else out of the current ordinary. A black truck sat next to the van, and he chanced a glance over the railing, seeing nobody within the second vehicle's cab through the front windshield.

He stood there, contemplating this for a moment. His mind wailed in his head, telling him over and over that something was amiss and that danger still lurked. Dare he risk heading down to the truck? Or going back to the others?

To add to the icing on the cake, what did the appearance of the recent brute—who Rekka identified upon seeing the mark laden on the back of his hand—and the second vehicle in the otherwise-deserted lot mean?

He froze. Footsteps came from under and behind him. Tenmei acted immediately; jumping over the railing and dangling for a second before letting go and dropping to the ground, wincing as his feet stung from the resulting fall. The Tanuki grinned, eying his trusty crossbow as he turned and clambered onto the hood, then the roof of the truck.

"There's the bastard!" a masculine voice called from above. Tenmei jerked both his gaze and his weapon up, spotting three more bulky men gathered behind the railing from which he deliberately fell.

"His hair ain't red! That's not the guy we're looking for!" another one of the men snapped, gesturing to Tenmei with an accusing finger.

"Then who is he?" the third asked, snarling.

"I recognize that eyepatch! It's the boss of the Stone Tanukis!" the first answered, letting off a booming laugh as he turned his attention back to said Tanuki. "What's little old sissypants doing out here, huh?"

"Fuck why he's here! How the hell did he survive the Kuchisake's wrath?" the second man asked, glowering as he turned to the man standing on the truck.

The cloaked man idly loaded more bolts into his automatic crossbow as the three on the balcony continued to loudly bicker amongst themselves. He shook his head at the display, checking his weapon to ensure that it had sufficient ammunition and functioned properly. He fired a bolt at the trio, smirking as he hit one of them in the upper arm.

"I'm right here and waiting for you, you steroid-abusing dickweeds! Come and get me!" Tenmei called out with a mocking smirk, waving his weapon like he held a white flag. The men glowered and jumped down, and as soon as they stood back up a hail of bolts greeted them, missing the entire lot.

The three rushed forward, only to stop when more bolts were sent their way, hitting two in the shoulders and one missing the third entirely. The wounded staggered back, allowing the Tanuki to land another, much deadlier volley: a few landed in the hearts of the wounded. 

One bolt, however, completely missed the vital organs of the last man, instead landing in one of his shoulders. The two who found themselves impaled in the chest collapsed and floundered like fish out of water for a moment before going still, while the third simply pried the bolt out of himself and snarled like a wild beast.

He lunged forward, jumping on the hood, making to grab the Tanuki by the foot and growling as he jumped out of the way. Tenmei landed in the bed of the truck, firing off another bolt and silently cursing as it landed in the other shoulder. He jumped out of the bed as the man made another attempt to tackle him, earning a string of curses as he rushed to the deceased men and picked out the bolts from their chests.

He gave a sigh of relief as he found that the arrowheads were still attached to the shafts, before seeing the last brute turn to him from the corner of his eye. Tenmei ran around again, seconds before the man jumped out of the truck and rushed him. For a few moments, one man chased the other, cursing up and down as the crossbowman evaded his pursuer like a mouse running from a dog.

Eventually, though, the man managed to corner the Tanuki against a wall, standing several feet from him and between his deceased allies. The man with the hurt shoulders panted ragged breaths, but Tenmei saw a flicker of something dastardly and carnal spark in his pain-fueled eyes.

"Where is he?" the wounded man hissed in a shuddering tone of voice riddled with anger, his glinting eyes narrowing low.

"Where is who?" Tenmei asked, his brow quirking and his back pressed firmly to the wall.

"A skinny man-bitch, with red hair and eyes," the brute answered, a wicked smirk cropping up on his face. The crossbowman blinked and his eye widened for a second before he regained his composure.

 _"Now asshats are after Rekka, too? What for?"_ Tenmei thought, biting his lip and flinching as the man took a step closer. He rolled his eye and took aim again, noticing that the hand holding his weapon trembled slightly. He licked his lips as he tried thinking up a response to the man's inquiry.

"Well? Where is the redhead?" the brute asked, his smirk widening as he took another step closer, cracking his knuckles in anticipation.

"Currently waiting to greet you in Hell," Tenmei finally answered, firing off another bolt and smirking as it landed cleanly in the man's forehead. The smile faded when this man did not keel over; no, he merely staggered a few paces back, his expression morphing into a glower highlighted with fresh trickling blood.

His eye widened as the man kneeled down and yanked something from the hip of one of his companions, lifting it up for Tenmei to see in all of its glinting glory. It had a silvery sheen, a trigger, a smooth rectangular-esque barrel and a black mottled handle. The brute aimed the gun at him, but before he could fire, Tenmei let loose another bolt that struck the hand holding the gun, causing it to drop the weapon.

The brute let loose curses as his hand got a dose of bolt, but remained unflinching even as he noticed a finger had been sliced clean off. He lunged forward, grabbing the gun with the other hand and taking aim again, firing off a round that barely nicked Tenmei's shoulder before something stopped him from unloading another bullet. The sound of something being unsheathed filled the air—followed immediately after by a katana landing on the intruder's cranium point-first, lodging itself firmly in the skull and causing more blood to dribble down his face.

The man stood stock still for a full moment before he fell over with glassy eyes, the gun clattering on the pavement as his hand released the weapon. The Tanuki ran past the corpses, turned to the balcony and looked up, seeing Nagare leaning against the railing with an empty sheath in his hand and a grin on his face. "I've always wanted to do that," the Tengu chimed, using the sheath to gesture to the man with the sword in his head.

Tenmei replied with a thumbs-up. "Thanks," he said with a blossoming smirk. Nagare nodded with a laugh.

"Don't mention it," Nagare chirped. "Say, when you're done peeking around, can you bring my sword back? I don't exactly feel like walking right now."

"Can do," Tenmei replied with a nod.


	12. Chapter XI- Similarities

Day turned into night, and for the most part, the hours passed in silence without further incident. Koto sat up in bed, eyes squinted and vision bleary as darkness greeted her. Her blue hair had become a tangled mess, and she made to move before something tightened around her waist. She blinked and looked down, eyes widening and hair standing on end as she found two arms draped in red strands holding her in place.

Her hand flew to the shoulder of the man next to her. "Rekka, wake up," she whispered, only to be met with unintelligible mumbles and a hand trailing up her back. "Wake up," she repeated in a louder tone, sighing in relief as the redhead opened his eyes and stared at her like she was an alien.

Rekka continued staring before realizing what had happened, and he quickly pulled himself away with a startled gasp of alarm. "H-holy shi—I'm sorry!" he exclaimed, eyes wide as his hands flew in front of his body defensively.

Koto shot him a look between exasperation, shock, and uncertainty. "Dreaming, I assume?" she asked in a low tone, her voice unsteady. When the Shot nodded, she sighed and decided that his silence was her cue to continue speaking, "Haven't we been over this, except where it was me touching you?"

Rekka nodded again, before his face flushed and his brows shot up as he realized what she might have just now implied. "You... you're telling me to keep my arms to myself?" he asked.

"No," Koto replied, causing the flustered man's eyes to widen with her response. "I have a reason for that." She paused to take a deep breath and steeled herself before elaborating, "I woke up after Tenmei drove us back to the old place, and we chatted a bit. Your hand... kinda shot up and grabbed me during that talk, and I bolted out of the bed like a snake out of a hiding hole."

"It did?" the redhead asked, blinking. "I... touched you in my sleep before?"

"Yeah, on..." Koto trailed off, one of her hands moving to hover above her left breast. "Right here."

"U-uh..." Now, Rekka found himself at a complete loss for words, his mind struggling to form some kind of coherent answer. Instead, he sat there spluttering as his bedmate shot him a smile.

"It's alright. I understand. Been there, done that," Koto sighed, turning away to giggle to herself. "You're forgiven. For both accidents." She turned to him, her grin widening. "Who wouldn't say 'no' to that adorable face you're making right now?"

 _"Gah! Dammit, how do I defuse the situation!?"_ Rekka still tried to think up a response, but his mind shut down as the woman leaned just a little closer, staring at him with eyes that glinted in silent askance. He held the gaze for a moment, then shut his eyes and released a heavy sigh. He flinched as a pair of arms wrapped around him, yet said nothing at all.

"What's wrong?" Koto asked, pulling away, looking at the man with concern flickering in her eyes.

Rekka released another sigh, and opened his eyes. He stared for another moment before licking his lips and speaking, "Sorry, just... trying not to flip my lid again."

Koto nodded and flopped down on the pillow. "Y'know... something's been bothering me ever since we got those visitors earlier today," she murmured, shifting to rest her hands beneath the pillow. She turned her head and ventured further, "How did they find us here?"

"Probably saw the van and went on a wild guess," Rekka answered, also flopping down. He gazed at the ceiling, brow furrowing at the shadows. "That gang's been disbanded..." he trailed off, frowning. His eyes widened, and he sat up again, long hair trailing behind him before stopping at his back.

The redhead jerked his gaze to his bedmate. "Koto, that's it!" he cried, tone riddled with alarm.

"Huh?" the woman murmured, a brow raising.

"Someone in the nearby town... the newspaper article... the wanted posters... they must've...!" Rekka stopped himself, shuddering as he mentally struggled to piece together his next choice of words. His pupils shrank, and he murmured, "Yuuki. We need to ask Yuuki something."

Koto sat up, eyes widening. "You mean..."

Rekka nodded. "She might know something," he finished for her. The two jumped out of the bed and ran to the door, throwing it wide open and stepping onto the extensive balcony. The sky outside had been besieged by murky clouds of near-black, making the lot, road, and sea beyond look a dark slate in comparison. Thunder shook the expanse above, but it did not rumble loud nor deep enough to affect the earth.

They froze when another door burst open nearby, but only for a second. They jerked their heads to the offending wood frame and blinked as Mimi shambled out of it.

The Tanuki turned to them and lazily nodded. "What are you two doing up so late?" she asked in a drowsy tone.

"Had trouble sleeping," Rekka stated, briefly shooting Koto a look that told her to play along. "You okay?"

"Yeah. Just figured I'd go looking at the sky... damn, it's so dark," Mimi sighed, turning her attention to the concealed cosmos as another clap of thunder emanated from the clouds. A frown framed her face in seconds after arcs of lightning briefly shot across the sky, reflecting upon the ocean tides like demented glowing strings. The three stood for a moment longer before the Tanuki returned to her room, closing the door behind her.

"Maybe Yuuki's asleep," Koto murmured. When the Shot turned to her with a nod, she smiled and ran down two doors over to knock three times with her knuckles. A moment passed in silence without an answer, and she knocked again after a clap of thunder had came and went.

Another moment passed, and still nobody answered. The Siren turned to Rekka with a shrug. "Yeah, she's probably snoozing," she stated.

"Let's head back inside before it starts raining," Rekka beckoned as he turned and started walking to his room. Koto sprinted after him, shutting the door once they made it back. He stiffened as the woman walked around him, brushing against the back of his hand with her knuckles. Relaxing as she continued on to the bed, he rubbed the back of his head with a hand and glanced at the ceiling again.

The Siren stretched and flopped on the bed in a way her knees could touch the floor, leaving her chest and head to rest on the sheets and mattress. She sighed and closed her eyes, staying in that position for a moment before standing up and throwing herself on the piece of furniture, this time with just her feet being the only parts of her not on the bed. Koto twisted for a bit, turning until her backside had been flush with the piece of furniture, and moved her hands under her head.

"Perhaps..." she idly murmured as the redhead finally made to get to the bed, stopping him in his tracks with the start of her musings. She gazed at the ceiling and continued after drawing a sigh, "You think Nagare has any scars on him?"

"Maybe," Rekka answered, staring at the woman with a puzzled frown on his face. "If he does, I'd wager that they'd be from the bullet and crossbow holes me and Tenmei managed to give him." Koto sat up and looked at him, opening her mouth to speak before being cut off, "But, he may've also been branded by someone. I know what's on your mind, woman."

Koto grinned. "That settles it; you have a third eye. Where is it?" she asked in a mock tone, giggling as Rekka smiled back.

"You almost had it," Rekka replied, grinning slyly.

It took the Siren a moment to realize what he spoke of, and she started with a fiery blush spreading on her face that the darkness of the room concealed. "Oh, you—!" she started, only to stop when she found herself unable to articulate even a short and half-assed response to that. Her eyes narrowed, and her grin morphed into a devilish smile when the Shot laughed.

"What's the matter, nekomata got your tongue?" Rekka asked, a fiery glint in his eyes.

 _"Oh, you're asking for it now, you long-haired bishounen,"_ Koto thought, her smirk widening as she spoke, "No, just got blindsided. If a nekomata got my tongue, it would have to disfigure my face first."

"Heh, and I'd imagine they'd have to get past the boomerang before that can happen," the man snorted, still keeping his wry grin on his face.

"Are you implying that we're gonna have to throw down sometime soon, and if you win you get me?" Koto asked, one corner of her mouth twitching.

"At this time of night, that'll probably wake everyone else up," Rekka replied with another snort.

"Maybe they'll want a show. I think Kaguya will want the front row seat," the woman retorted, the corner of her mouth still twitching.

"Good luck getting Takashi to not stop her from doing that," the man snickered, his own grin widening. He abruptly halted in his bout of chortling as a yawn climbed up his throat. He covered his mouth with a hand to yawn again. "Remind me to ask Yuuki tomorrow morning."

"I think I—" Koto began, but yawned mid-sentence. She continued once the exhale left her mouth, "—can manage that."

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"N-Nagare," Yuuki whimpered, being held against the wall by a hand resting on her chest. Nagare loomed over her, his other hand resting on a raised surface so he could lean a bit on his good foot. The Yatagarasu trembled as the Tengu slipped a bit, the hand on the surface shifting further to the right and causing the other hand to trail a little lower on the woman's chest as a result. The room was inky black; so much so the two couldn't see each other.

"S-sorry. Didn't realize you were there," Nagare replied, lifting the hand on the woman and thrusting it to hit the wall behind her. "Is there a lamp? I can't see shit," he grumbled. Yuuki sighed and walked around him, careful to avoid tripping him on accident, and pawed around for something even remotely of use. When her hands felt up a small beaded string after touching a paper-like wavy surface, she tugged on it, wincing as a lamp on a wide nightstand lit up the room and hit her right in the face with its light.

Nagare chuckled as Yuuki backed away from the lamp and rubbed her eyes, before eying the small room. A queen-sized bed, one without blankets, stood behind the woman. A door rested on the right, but aside from that the room was empty. "So, why'd you want to sleep in this room, exactly?" the woman asked, turning to the man and crossing her arms.

Nagare smiled at her—with the expression once more seeming off on his pale, thin face. A small glint sparked in his exposed eye; a faint glow in a dark, dull void. Another shudder went up and down Yuuki's spine when she saw that gleam. "May I ask of you a favor?" he inquired nonchalantly.

When the Yatagarasu heard the word 'favor' leave Nagare's mouth, her thought processes halted immediately, and a few tense moments passed without a response. "W-what?" she stammered out after managing to gather herself.

"Nothing too difficult. I just need help getting from here to the bed," Nagare replied, lifting a hand and using it to gesture to his feet. Yuuki glanced down and spotted a heavily-bandaged limb wrapped tightly in a cast, before sighing and relaxing. She strode over and let him wrap an arm around her shoulders, and she half-dragged him to the bed. He flopped on it and sent her an appreciative smirk when someone began knocking on something faintly. It stopped when thunder clapped outside, but resumed and faded a moment later.

When the room lulled into silence, he sat up and tugged his jacket off, folding it up and plopping it on top of a pillow. Yuuki raised a brow, only to blush and turn her gaze to the door when the Tengu decided it was a good idea to remove his pants and toss them to the floor. "Don't get your knickers in a twist; I'm only going to sleep in the nude tonight," he said.

"Could you, at least… y'know, cover your junk, please?" Yuuki murmured, hearing the sound of cloth rustling once her question was uttered.

"There," Nagare retorted. Yuuki turned to him and sighed, finding that he had a pillow over his crotch, and that he laid on his back. "Are you happy now?" he asked nonchalantly, his smirk widening when the woman nodded after a few minutes passed.

"Why'd you… y'know…" Yuuki spluttered, and when she found herself unable to speak another syllable due to stuttering incoherently, she gave up with words and merely gestured to the discarded pants for emphasis.

"It's just something I do before I go to sleep, if I happen to be sleeping on a good bed," Nagare replied, still grinning. He used a hand to pat the mattress, chuckling as the springs bounced his hand back each time without fail. "And this is a good bed. All it's missing is a blanket; otherwise, I'd be golden."

"Oh, it's a quirk?" Yuuki asked after spluttering for another few moments. When the Tengu sighed and nodded, she relaxed and felt her cheeks cool down a bit. "Alright, I can get behind that," she murmured with a nod of understanding. Another shiver ran up her spine as she approached the bed, and she froze when Nagare rose a hand with his palm facing her, signaling for her to halt.

"I have a little rule about sleeping nude in the bed: if you're going to hop in, might as well strip," he said in a level tone, either unaware or unconcerned that Yuuki trembled on the spot. "And no, I won't touch you in any sort of sexual manner. Even I have my limits."

"How should I know you won't poke me?" Yuuki retorted, again crossing her arms.

"Because you helped kick my ass," Nagare replied coolly. "If you can fight me with a spear, and this isn't taking into account your backup, then I'm pretty sure you could hand me my rear end on a silver platter bare-handed." He rose the hand he patted the mattress with and beckoned her over. Begrudgingly, the Yatagarasu complied, moving to the side of the bed. She then stripped off her white hood and pants, revealing to him her array of scars that ran rampant on her body, though she did not climb onto the mattress.

She rose her hands to cover her breasts, averting her eyes as her face flushed in a vibrant red. She flinched upon hearing a choking sound coming from Nagare, awkwardly crossing her legs when he swallowed thickly. "W-what did those fucks _do_ to you, woman?" Nagare asked in an alarmed tone of voice. Yuuki made eye contact with him after he asked the question and noticed his smile had fallen, along with his already-pale visage blanching like someone splashed bleach on it.

For what felt like a long while, Yuuki failed to answer, and both she and Nagare maintained eye contact for that indeterminate amount of time. A small whimper of "The Onis" was all it took for the Tengu to lose what was left of his composure.

The color fully drained from Nagare's face, and he sat bolt upright with such haste his hair almost smacked him. "Would it be alright for you to… ah, get dressed again?" he asked in a low tone.

Yuuki climbed on the bed, eschewing getting dressed. "What's the point if I'll just strip tomorrow to take a shower?" she replied, eyes widening a bit as she noticed the sod was thinner than she was. For starters, his arms and legs lacked in muscular build and—in addition to having scabbed-over holes in said limbs that came from bullets and crossbow bolts—looked more twig-like than they should have, his ribs were showing, and his shoulders protruded slightly. "And besides, both you and I got screwed in different ways by the Onis."

Nagare laid back down and drew a heavy sigh. "Fair point," he agreed. He noticed that the woman stared at him, gazing up and down his body. "What?" he asked.

"You… hardly have scars—most scars I can see are on your arms and legs," Yuuki answered, placing her hand on a deep bluish-black bruise that formed on the Tengu's stomach. This earned her a pained grunt, and an eye screwing shut. "And I think I can count your ribs," she added, her hand running up the man's chest before stopping as he grabbed her wrist with lightning quickness.

"I still ache, woman. Stop prodding at me," Nagare hissed, releasing the wrist. Yuuki pulled back her hand with a sigh, although not one tinged with annoyance or a similar emotion.

"Why're you… y-you're skinnier than I am," Yuuki murmured, her eyes glued to his prone form. The violet irises flickered left and right with alarm and concern as she spoke, and those emotions increased tenfold as the man let out a dry laugh.

"A katana's not a good hunting tool. As far as finding food goes, in that forest, I was shit out of luck," Nagare replied, turning to his companion and sending her a fond smirk. "I would've been done for two nights ago, but then you and your friends found me. I… I acted the way I did because I wasn't sure if they'd kill me or not. I was alone. Afraid. Fueled by pain and hunger and a need to survive."

Yuuki turned her attention to Nagare's busted foot as he went on, "I'm surprised I managed to tackle Tenmei to the ground like I did. I just felt a rush of blood, and then I saw Koto and Rekka and just… snapped. But I guess my own rage fucked me over just as I began seeing red." He paused to let off another laugh, this one with no mirth. "Having weak muscles and wounds and a sword in one hand… if I can fight like I did then, I guess I'm not too far gone yet."

"You… acted out of fear… because you…" Yuuki stopped herself as the dots connected in her head, and her eyes widened some more.

"And when I said Koto did something to my boss…believe it or not, I lied. Just seeing her made me think… she brought trouble with her," Nagare added, sighing once more. "I'm impressed she played along, though. Maybe she saw… that something was amiss." Yuuki's pupils shrank. He noted the expression with but a terse remark, "I see you're catching on."

With the same lightning speed he had grabbed her wrist with earlier, he shot upright again and wrapped his arms around Yuuki in one motion, pulling her into a hug and ignoring the startled gasp she gave as a result of being embraced so suddenly. The woman began fidgeting uncomfortably, and in a few seconds Nagare took the hint and peeled himself off of her.

"I just… hadn't had contact in a while." He leaned close to her, but stopped, eyes glinting in askance. Hesitantly, Yuuki nodded, and he embraced her in his arms again. This time, she returned the gesture. "I guess being alone… does things to a person. _Awful_ things. I'm not sure what to… do."

"Is… that why you wanted to see me naked?" Yuuki mumbled into his ear, flinching as the arms around her tightened their hold.

"No. Just… right now, I feel certain. Sure of myself. _Safe._ When I learned the Yatagarasus and the Onis teamed up, I felt my body going numb. My brain briefly shut down," Nagare answered in a low voice. "And the way Tenmei shot down my suggestion of camouflage… tell me, is he desperate as I am?"

"Define 'desperate,'" Yuuki sighed, closing her eyes.

"I wanted a quick solution, one that would work fast and would take very little effort to pull off. At this rate, any way out would suffice—though I doubt death would do anyone any good in the long run," Nagare answered, a hint of bitterness in his tone. "And the Ryus showed up, and I… I decided to take after you and Koto. I don't want to be useless, busted ankle be damned."

Yuuki smiled softly at that. "It's good to not take it lying down," she stated. "Try telling that to Tenmei, though." Her remark managed to excise a chuckle from the Tengu, and she relaxed as she felt his chest pump with his laughter.

"I probably don't need to. I saved his ass from a Ryu by dropping my katana on his head," Nagare replied, also softly grinning. Once more, he peeled himself away from Yuuki and laid back down. He turned his head to her as she crawled off of the bed, spotting the three-legged bird on her lower back. "They tramp stamped you?" he asked, causing her to halt again.

"Felt like I was boiling in lava when they did," Yuuki sighed, standing up and running a hand through her hair. She hunched over with a grunt of pain, her other hand sweeping over to rest on one side of her branding mark.

"Just lay down and take it easy for a while," Nagare piped up. Yuuki groaned and sat down on the bed, her back facing him. She flopped on the mattress, shivering again as she felt eyes gaze her up and down. The Yatagarasu stiffened as a hand gripped her by the shoulder. "You still want to know why I wanted you to strip?" he asked.

"Um… y-yeah," Yuuki replied, suppressing another shudder.

"I believe—and this will probably sound stupid to you—that you can assess a person by how they look. Clothes can fit a body, sure, but they cover up what that person hides," Nagare answered, his tone taking on a calm note. "And it seems you and I have some similarities—I can see some of your ribs, too, and you're pale as a dove!"

Yuuki turned her head to him, raising a brow disbelievingly. "W-wait… you and I…"

"Yes. In some ways, we're alike," Nagare replied, a smile on his face.


	13. Chapter XII- Shadows

The following morning, Rekka and Koto and Tenmei found themselves in Nagare's room, all looking at the Tengu as if he snorted the strongest drug in existence before their very eyes. Yuuki sat next to him on the bed, using her hands to cover her privates. "You want us to do _what_ now?" Koto asked, a half-frown on her face. The other two shared similar expressions.

Nagare, who was still naked and covering his junk with the pillow from the night prior, smiled sweetly at the trio. "Take off your clothes; this won't take long," he said coolly.

Tenmei quirked his exposed brow. "Why?" he inquired tersely.

Yuuki sighed and awkwardly answered for the Tengu, "Um… he has a strange philosophy or something. He wants to assess you guys based on what your bodies look like…" she paused, seeing the expressions of the trio change from confusion to apprehension, "no, not sexually—he told me it was like getting to know a person better. Why do you think I'm naked and lacking bedhead?"

"What you're saying is… he wants us to strip, so he can… judge us?" Rekka asked disbelievingly.

"Not necessarily judge you," Nagare interjected, raising a hand with the palm facing towards the three. "Even little things, like a small catscratch, can say a lot about a person. Clothes hide much about people, and what they went through—they cover up physical scars that tell stories about the person adorned with them." At this, Tenmei started and stiffened on the spot. The Tengu noted this and turned his viridian gaze on him. "You first."

Tenmei paled. He shared a quick glance with Koto and Rekka, who both looked at him with unreadable expressions. "If he's not gonna sexualize us, or molest us while he's looking our bodies over, then what harm is there to it?" the Shot asked, his remark doing little to reassure the Tanuki.

"I-I'm still…" Tenmei spluttered, a light blush painting his cheeks. "I do not want to get naked," he murmured after taking a breath to calm himself.

Koto cut him off before he could protest some more, "Rekka's right. If we're only stripping so Nagare knows us better without touching us, I see no harm done." Tenmei gave a whine or two of protest, but this only caused the blue-eyed woman to start snapping immediately. "Listen, if he touches you, I'll clock him upside the head again. Are you going to strip or not?" she hissed, and at that he emitted a series of defeated whimpers, shuddering as if expecting a thorough bashing from an oversized boomerang. He hesitantly cast off his cloak, revealing shoes, pants, and a long-sleeve shirt that were also sable in color. He took off his hat and set it down on the nightstand behind him, before tugging off his shirt and folding that neatly. 

He stopped, revealing a torso and shoulders and stomach that were much like the right side of his face, causing Rekka to pipe up. "Go on, strip the rest of the way... just be glad you aren't being molested," he sighed. The other four watched as he slowly took off the gloves and shoes and pants, revealing that his legs and hips looked like multi-hued patchwork, similar to his upper body. Some parts were pale, and others ranged from slightly tanned to a deep rich brown that gave his hair a run for its money, all adorned with old stitches. It was as if someone crafted his body from multiple individuals and gave it life somehow. He turned to face Nagare and removed the eyepatch, and the Tengu looked him up and down with dilating pupils.

"Sweet merciful Gods of Luck… did someone toss you into an incinerator at some point?" Nagare asked, shuddering when Tenmei shook his head.

"Took a tumble down an exploding cliff, got caught in a landslide, and received multiple surgeries and skin-graft donations after I was excavated from the rubble," the one-eyed man answered, turning to look down at his exposed junk. He quickly covered it up with the eyepatch, but not fast enough to keep it hidden from the lad on the bed.

"How the hell do you still have your dick and balls?" Nagare noted, eyes widening.

Tenmei blushed. "You might as well be asking me how the hell I survived to begin with. Now, can I please put my clothes back on?" he retorted. Nagare shook his head at the Tanuki, mouthing a "Not yet" his way and garnering another whine. Fortunately, the green-eyed man decided to stop prodding at the sorry patchwork-looking bastard any more than necessary. He turned his attention onto Rekka.

"You're next. Oh, and hold your hair over one shoulder after you finish," the Tengu sighed. The Shot groaned, but did not protest as he likewise stripped down, sweeping his long hair over his right shoulder when he finished. Nagare looked him up and down as he did Tenmei, noticing a slender frame with a little bit of bulk, though nothing struck him as out of the ordinary. He gestured with a hand to turn around, and the redhead complied, revealing to the two on the bed the fire-breathing serpent on his back.

"Happy now?" Rekka inquired, keeping his back turned to Nagare.

"Yes, but with you… something's different. You recall our intruder yesterday, right?" Nagare murmured. When the Shot nodded, he went on, "You're not deathly thin, but neither are you obese or bulky. You… almost look like a runt compared to the visitors we had to kill. No offense."

Koto immediately started stripping, even before the Tengu's gaze swept over her. She hurriedly undressed herself, hearing Rekka mumble a "No offense taken" as her clothes peeled from her body. Once she stood in the nude with everyone else, she stared at Yuuki while the eyes of green lingered on her for a moment longer.

"Anything on your backside?" Nagare questioned, whereupon Koto answered by turning around to show him her back, which he immediately found was strangely devoid of scars. "Hrm… alright, you three can get dressed now." Tenmei let off an immense sigh of relief at that, and Rekka merely snorted, though Koto didn't really make any kind of noise. The three got dressed and turned their attention to the Tengu when they finished a minute later.

"So, any impressions, Viridian?" Tenmei asked.

"It would seem I'm not the only one trying to scratch out a living when the world wants my head. Put it this way: I think all of us got unlucky, though it seems things are now looking up," Nagare replied, closing his eyes and letting a smile spread on his face.

Rekka arched a brow. "How are things looking up, exactly?" he inquired.

"We found each other, and in my case, you guys saved me from dying alone in the wilderness—it's just that I needed a few bullets, bolts, and a whack upside the head for me to come back to my senses," Nagare replied, his smile widening. "Think about it: pure happenstance can be a good thing."

Tenmei put a hand to his chin and hummed thoughtfully. "I suppose that's true," he murmured. "But, it can also flip-flop on a person so fast they won't see it coming," he added.

"Exactly," Nagare chirped, and he began beaming. The three who had stripped earlier looked at him incredulously as his eyes began glimmering, almost glowing with some kind of euphoria.

"Are you okay?" Koto asked, worry rampant in her tone and sparking in her eyes.

"Are you kidding? I'm better than ever!" Nagare replied jovially, taking a moment to laugh in such a manner it felt as though he hadn't done so in a long time. Then, Yuuki joined in the chortling, throwing her head back as she howled with laughter. Both of them cackled for a few minutes before they collapsed against the bed, faces slightly blue and pained wheezes leaving their chests as they struggled to get oxygen into their lungs.

"Well, at least they're happy as clams now," Tenmei noted, a smile on his face. He turned to Rekka and addressed him, "Say, you think we should hit town again, Redhead?"

"Not yet," Rekka replied with a firm shake of his head. "What if we get attacked out there, and suppose Kaguya and whoever else stays also got ambushed? With what happened yesterday, we can't risk it. At most, we might need another newspaper article telling us what's up, but nothing more than that."

Tenmei nodded. "Alright. So, what should we do in the meantime?" he asked.

"Just relax and eat and keep an eye out for any potential threats," Rekka replied, a small frown on his face.

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A few hours passed into mid-afternoon, and the group of nine sat around the table in the waiting room again, though this time there was a noticeable difference: Nagare had ditched his jacket. The twins and shopkeepers shot him worried looks upon seeing his exposed chest and torso, and the Tengu merely flicked his gaze across the lot left and right, assessing them from quick-second glances.

"So, erm…" Kaguya began, trying to spark a conversation that didn't revolve around Nagare's rather poor condition, "Who gets watch tonight?"

The twins exchanged glances, and Mimi opened her mouth to speak—but Tenmei beat her to the punch, "I'll keep watch."

"Wait, if you keep watch… what's gonna happen if you run out of crossbow bolts?" Kaguya asked, eyelids slanting as she turned to glance worriedly at Tenmei.

Tenmei laughed, as if the shopkeeper really hadn't asked such a question. "I can just pick them up and fire them again," he replied, chortling between words.

"Well, crossbow bolts are recyclable…" Takashi murmured thoughtfully, lifting a hand to rub his temples with.

"Which makes a crossbow versatile as hell," Tenmei stated rather matter-of-factly, crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair. His eye blinked a few times, and he smirked as a sigh left his lips.

"Too bad they can't send their ammunition through bricks and concrete," Rekka pointed out in an indignant huff.

"True," Tenmei agreed with a nod. "But before I take up watch duty, there's something else I need to show you," he added, turning his eye onto Rekka and then Koto and using a hand to gesture to them both. Abruptly, he sat up, pushing the chair back from the sudden motion. The duo he kept his gaze and hand trained on also rose up, albeit less hastily than the Tanuki did.

Koto and Rekka looked at everyone else as they stood, though they got nothing more than shrugging of shoulders and twin nods from Takashi and Kaguya. "It's very serious. It's… something you'll both have to see in order to understand," the male shopkeeper sighed, his face hardening. The three nodded to him and walked away from the table before quickly filing out of the room, leaving the other six to start bickering amongst themselves. They swiftly moved onto the balcony, with Tenmei taking point.

The Tanuki walked calmly along the balcony before stopping a few doors down and turning sharply to his right. Koto and Rekka ran up to him and whirled to the direction he faced, finding a stairwell leading down to the ground floor and the parking lot. After exchanging a few glances taking a quick peek over the railing—noticing that there was a black pickup truck which sat undisturbed next to the van—they descended down the flight and darted to the left. Tenmei led the Shot and Siren down a few doors and stopped abruptly once more, turning to a door that had the words and numbers **'Storage Room #12'** imbedded onto the frame.

"What's so special about a storage room?" Koto asked, using a hand to gesture to the door itself for emphasis.

Tenmei grabbed the knob and turned it before pushing, causing the door to creak open ever so slightly. "You'll see very shortly, Blue Eyes," he replied in a rather low, ominous tone of voice. He opened the door and found a small narrow hall beyond, sparsely lit with lights tacked to the walls whose bulbs flickered about madly, tethering on burning out. At the end of this hall was a stairwell that led down to another room below, which the one-eyed man strode to with such haste his form almost seemed to be a living shadow in of itself.

He stopped on the first step, raising a hand to beckon the two over. Koto swallowed nervously and sprinted to meet with Tenmei, with Rekka shutting the door and following along not too far behind her thereafter. The trio went down, this time slowly and cautiously, immediately noticing a lack of wall lamps accompanying the flight—which left them to paw around in the dark as the light behind faded with some distance.

They went on in silence, reaching the end of the flight in minutes. Another room greeted them, one with a few lamps littering and illuminating concrete floor with a scene that caused Koto to start retching violently. Four chairs stood in the center of the room, as well as a nearby video camera on a stand, lens keeping a constant vigil on the quartet of wooden frames. 

Sitting in said chairs were four months-old corpses of naked young women, heavily mutilated and rotting in place, tied up by flimsy ropes which also wasted away. To one side were the brutes that showed up yesterday, piled haphazardly atop one another and resting in a corner. Rekka approached the corpses and walked around them, his face set with a firm frown as he repeatedly paused and eyed the various cuts on the desecrated bodies. 

His frown started deepening as the state of the carcasses made the wounds hard to accurately discern, and he groaned in annoyance. One had what looked like a three-legged bird in the valley of her breasts, another sported a dragon that disturbingly rose up from her crotch, and the third had a horned demon carved into her forehead and a split grin adorning her cheeks. 

The last, however, had a symbol he didn't recognize—a creature with the head and neck of a snake, the body of a horse, the paws of a lion, and the tail feathers of what looked like a peacock's framing the stomach. The Shot turned to the Tanuki and spoke up, a hand gesturing to the out-of-place creature, "Do you know this animal? I don't."

Tenmei turned to Koto and patted her on the back, sidestepping out of the way immediately after that when the woman started to puke onto the floor. "I don't know that fourth symbol," he replied. "But we might be in divided territory here, if those markings on the other three are anything to go by."

"D-divided… territory?" Koto croaked, pausing for a moment to catch her breath before more bile forced itself out of her throat and landed onto the floor in a messy splatter.

Tenmei patiently waited for the Siren to finish emptying her guts out onto the place before answering her question. "Yes. To put it simply, we might be standing in a place where three gangs can easily congregate. For all we know, the Ryus, Onis, and Yatagarasus could have made an agreement of sorts before we even came into the picture and fucked shit up a bit. To be honest, I didn't even find out about this room until extra bodies had to be added to the mess," he finished, using a hand to gesture to the deceased bulky lads in the corner.

Koto and Rekka paled instantly, briefly glancing at the pile of dead men. "So we're probably gonna have to haul ass again?" they asked in unison, fear flickering across both sets of irises as they turned back to their cloaked companion.

The one-eyed man glumly nodded. "And nine of us in one vehicle… face it, we're borderline clown-caring it, and that's not taking into account the food and other things I managed to accrue from the foraging trip two days ago," he stated. "First chance we get, we're packing and taking the truck as well as the van. We're also gonna be leaving the Ryus, Onis, and any remaining Yatagarasus a nice _parting gift,_ should they decide to drop by again." 

With that he turned around and started going up the stairs, and immediately the Shot and Siren rushed to start going up behind him as he went. Wordlessly the trio rushed up the flight, visages plagued by concern and worry on their way up.

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Day waded into night after a few hours, and Tenmei stood on the balcony, keeping a hawk's-eye vigil on the area and the road beyond. He constantly fiddled about with his crossbow for seconds at a time, though he always stopped every time a pair of headlights or two passed by. It helped that clouds once more loomed overhead and the motel's outside lights ceased functioning at some point, as the lack of light from the sky and building gave him more shadows to hide in.

He turned around, hearing a muffled noise coming from behind the door he stood in front of, and listened for a moment before the balcony became totally silent. Arching a brow, he made to turn his attention back to the road—the noise repeated as soon as his back faced the door. So he glanced at the door again, this time glaring at it. He strode over to it and lightly knocked on the wooden frame with one hand when a sound between a feminine moan and a startled gasp hit his ears.

"Buzz off! I'm busy!" he heard an alarmed-sounding Kaguya shout from within. Tenmei smiled and chortled to himself before finally diverting all of his attention to the damned road again.

The Tanuki idly leaned towards the railing, one hand on the crossbow and the other rising up to grip the metal support pole tightly. For a minute, he shook his head and bit his lower lip in an attempt to stifle some laughter. Another car passed the road, headlights facing the direction it was going, and he stiffened for a second before relaxing as the vehicle passed on its merry way to who knows where.

Tenmei's gaze shifted to the truck that sat next to his van. A smile spread on his lips when he turned his eye back to the road a minute later. A breeze blew by, causing his cloak to lightly billow and his bangs to lazily sweep across his face, their shadows seemingly dancing about before the zephyr passed and they stilled.

However, the smile fell when three cars blazed past on the road at high speeds, followed in short order by five police cars with sirens blaring and lights going off. Tenmei's brow furrowed as the cars vanished out of sight. The anomaly was followed just fifteen minutes later by a distant screeching of tires and what sounded like cars taking a tumble down a cliffside. "Idiot drivers," he mumbled under his breath. The sirens also faded away as he made the remark, though they came with another set of noises very likely stemming from cars taking a leap of faith.

Tranquility set around the motel, and nothing dared to break it—at least, for fifteen minutes. A startled shriek cut through the air, muffled and distant in a way the one-eyed man on watch duty had no idea of where it originated from. He darted his head every which-way, wondering where in hell the screech came from. He let go of the metal railing and turned to his left, stalking along the balcony like a wolf in search of prey.

He passed a few doors when another scream, just as distant as the first, broke through the air and faded as fast as it had come. Tenmei shrugged and turned his attention back to the road, once more leaning against the railing. He jumped when a door opened behind him, and he turned around without raising his crossbow to find Yuuki standing in the doorframe, rubbing one of her eyes with a hand. "What is with that yodeling?" she asked tiredly.

Tenmei responded with a shrug. "Beats me," he sighed.

Yuuki nodded with a yawn. "I'm going back to bed," she mumbled, and just started to turn around when the one-eyed watchman stopped her just by speaking.

"Is Nagare… touching you in any sexual manner?" Tenmei asked, concern marring his tone.

Yuuki shook her head. "He said he wouldn't, unless I wanted him to," she answered sincerely. With that, she returned to her room and gently closed the door behind her. The Tanuki sighed and once more turned his vigil onto the blasted road beyond the parking lot that seemed to deliberately taunt him left and right.

Another vehicle went by after twenty minutes. Tenmei squinted his eye, feeling exhaustion setting in. He noticed that, at the edge of the ocean and sky, a very faint reddish-violet tint began cropping up amidst the dark navy blue. A small smile crept on his lips once more, and he stood there on the balcony, watching and waiting for an hour or two longer. As he waited, he repeatedly nodded off for a few seconds before jolting and shaking his head to wake himself up. Though with each attempt, it became more and more futile. He kept at it, however—sleep be damned until he finished up his watch shift.

Another hour passed, and no cars cantered down the road as he kept vigil. Only when the sun finally decided to poke its head out minutes later and hit him in the face with its brilliant golden light while painting the sky a glorious scarlet did he turn away. He walked to a room whilst letting off a long and drawn-out yawn, opened the door, and strode inside. Though as the door clicked shut behind him, another police car passed by, sirens blaring as it sped off into the distance.


	14. Chapter XIII- Parting Gift

Nagare jolted up in bed with the haste of a fleeing rabbit, eyes snapping wide open and a choked gasp coming out of his mouth which dried out in seconds. Sweat beaded down his face and body, but the room felt unusually cold, and shallow breaths came from his throat. He shivered and slung his legs around to rest on the floor, wincing and hissing as his twisted foot shot a painful jolt through his system in protest. 

His hair clung tightly on his visage, matted and messy and thick with tangles and covering his right eye. He rose a hand and brushed it aside, noting that his limb trembled violently and that sight from his once-covered eye caused half the room to turn blurry. Nagare blinked his eyes in an attempt to clear the partial fog, but this only caused spots and hazy areas to appear in said fog's stead.

He took deep, shuddering breaths in an attempt to calm his nerves, but in doing so only felt his heart start a pilgrimage up his throat. The Tengu wrapped his arms around himself, still shaking and drawing breaths that seemingly refused to come. He tensed when a feminine groan hit his ears, going still as a statue as another pair of arms wrapped around him from behind and their owner pressed up against his back.

"What's wrong? Why are you shaking?" he heard Yuuki ask in a low tone, and started relaxing as a chin made to rest on his shoulder. The Tengu failed to answer, though his shaking lessened and his breaths turned less shallow as she held him for a minute longer. "Bad dream?" the Yatagarasu questioned, pressing herself closer when all her inquiry garnered was a shaky nod of the man's head.

"Y-Yuuki…" Nagare croaked in a hoarse voice. "L-let me go f-for a moment…" The woman complied, and he turned around before shifting to sit on his knees. Just seconds after that, he threw his arms around her, pulling her back to him like a magnet. He calmed down a little more as she returned the gesture. The lad tightened his grip, earning a small squeak from Yuuki, but nothing more than that.

He jumped, almost toppling both of them over as the door opened and Tenmei stepped in unannounced. The Tanuki eyed the two and asked, "Uh… what's going on here?"

"Nagare's trying not to freak out," Yuuki replied hastily. "He talks like a frog is wedged in his throat, he's clammy as fuck, and he won't stop shaking."

Tenmei's eye widened. "Ah, shit. Sounds to me like he's having a bad fever," he groaned, rushing over to the duo in a heartbeat. He took off a glove and wiped the once-concealed hand on his cloak before moving it beneath the viridian locks and cupping his palm on the Tengu's forehead. An alarming amount of warmth instantly greeted his hand, which was accompanied by a great deal of sweat, and he sharply pulled back before noticing that the viridian sod's face was flushed. "Hey, you okay?" 

The room began tilting this way and that, slowly at first. Then, it started to spin. If not for Yuuki holding him, he'd have collapsed on the spot. A thundering beat hammered out in his chest, and he felt as it his ribcage was about to explode and send his internal organs running. "Room… spinning… heart r-racing," Nagare spluttered, almost completely silent as he spoke.

The Tanuki's eye narrowed, and he put his glove back on before speaking in a gentle voice, "Stay put. I'm going to get you a whole friggin' pack of water and some soup."

Nagare weakly nodded, and with that, Tenmei rushed out of the room in a hurry. His heart started going back down his throat, deciding that it wasn't worth it to finish the climb, though sweat still stayed on his body and the room still felt chilly. He shifted and relaxed his grip on Yuuki, emitting a weak groan.

"Hey, don't push yourself. Just take it easy for today," Yuuki cooed softly, smiling when the Tengu managed another nod. "Do you need anything?" The quivering man shook his head. "Alright. Just let me know before Tenmei comes back." Nagare gave a small grunt, his arms falling slack for a moment before rising up and wrapping around the woman again.

"Y-Yuu—" Nagare mumbled, but he broke off to dryly cough for a minute, screwing his eyes shut so that the damned room could stop spinning.

"Yeah?" Yuuki asked, fidgeting a little bit to get more comfortable. She stiffened when Takashi came running in with a few bottles of water in hand. The shopkeeper wasted no time reaching the two, putting down all but one bottle on the bed and twisting the lid of the last one so fast the Yatagarasu could've sworn the lid simply flew off. He held the bottle to her, and she grabbed it with a hand before breaking the embrace.

Nagare nearly collapsed the very instant she let go, but Takashi grabbed him by the shoulders and held him steady. He sent an appreciative smile to the shopkeeper and, with a shaky hand, accepted the bottle as soon as Yuuki offered it to him. The Tengu lifted the bottle's lip to his mouth and started drinking, taking the life-giving fluid in such large gulps at a time some drops seeped from the corners of his mouth and dribbled down his chin.

"Goodness, he's parched!" Takashi remarked as soon as the bottled had been emptied—which, given how Nagare practically filled his cheeks with every gulp, only took a mere twenty seconds at most.

The Tengu dropped the empty bottle and threw his head back, letting off a content sigh. "Throat was so dry… thank you…" he murmured weakly, his voice a bit less hoarse and dry-sounding. Tenmei came back, this time juggling a bowl of warmed vegetable soup and he was walking slowly to avoid spilling the dish's contents.

"Did you already give him a bottle? He looks like he's perked up slightly," Tenmei stated as he waded over and handed Nagare the bowl. His eye widened when the Tengu didn't even blow air to cool the liquid and vegetables. Rather, he took the bowl and held its rim to his mouth and practically inhaled the hearty brew, with only the briefest of pauses to chew the already-soft plants into mush.

"Looks to me like he's fucking dehydrated," Takashi growled before turning to Yuuki. "So, why's he skinny?"

"Couldn't hunt well in the forest because of his katana," Yuuki answered swiftly, taking the empty bowl from the shivering man and noticing that he smiled at her. "Given how he just… vacuumed the bowl and the bottle, I'd wager he didn't have a source of water, either."

"Nearest source of water in that damned forest… it was dirty and always left me sick after I finished drinking from it," Nagare groaned, letting off a content sigh.

"Good thing we got you when we did," Yuuki chirped, garnering a nod from the Tengu.

"Alright, you two," Tenmei began, his statement causing the shopkeeper and violet-haired woman to look at him with raised brows. "Soon, we're getting out of here and making camp in a new location. But right now, he's our main priority," he added in a low tone, using a hand to gesture to Nagare for emphasis. "Stay with him, and make sure he's hydrated sufficiently before we pack up and hit the road again." Takashi and Yuuki both nodded in understanding, though the latter donned a vexed look that lasted for only a few seconds.

"Good," Nagare groaned with a small smile. "This room was getting stuffy anyway."

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Kaguya, the twins, Rekka, and Koto were bustling about in the parking lot. They all dashed madly into the motel, then out of it a minute later, each carrying as many boxes, blankets, and whatever else they wanted to salvage as much as possible. The black truck's bed was filled out with an assortment of goods, with the boxes atop the blankets and pillows to keep them secured. Once they got what they needed from the building, they shifted their attention to the van and emptied out its back, again stashing its contents into the bed.

As soon as the van was emptied of its share of the goods, which—coupled with filling the truck's bed—took a little over an hour, the five took a break and helped themselves to water bottles. Koto leaned against the passenger's door of the truck and opened her bottle, taking a hefty swig before speaking. "So," she began, turning to Mimi as she spoke, "did Ten tell you where we're going?"

Mimi shrugged and shook her head. "Only that we should prepare to set up base elsewhere," she sighed.

Koto nodded and turned to Mimu, only to garner the same result before she could even speak. "Nada," the pink-eyed girl stated, taking a small sip from her bottle before climbing aboard the truck's bed. "Oh, did you leave the C4 in the van?"

"Um, no," Kaguya answered, leaning against the side of the van that faced the truck. "It's with the unopened water bottles, behind the tailgate." Mimu turned to the tailgate and carefully waded her way to it, kneeling in front of a box without a lid of any sort and grinning at the wires, dynamite, and small keypads within.

"When do you think the others will show up?" Rekka piped up, using the back of his hand to wipe a scant few beads of sweat from his brow. "The longer we dawdle, the more antsy I'm gonna get."

"Don't know," Kaguya answered with a sigh and a shrug of her shoulders. "All I know is that Tenmei told us to pack up everything we could get."

"And we about finished doing just that. Sans Nagare, Yuuki, and Takashi, I think we're all good to go," Rekka snorted, removing the lid from his bottle and taking a few drinks. He turned to the balcony upon hearing a door swing open, spotting Yuuki and Takashi exiting the room, hoisting Nagare between them. Tenmei arrived behind them, with the Tengu's katana in hand.

The Tanuki peered down the railing as the other two hauled Nagare on his way to the stairs. "Everything packed?" he asked.

"We're about ready to go," Koto called from below. "We've just been waiting on you guys."

"Alright. Mimu, ready the bombs… once Takashi and Yuuki lug Nagare into the van," Tenmei called back, smiling when the twin he addressed nodded. Then, the cloaked man rushed over to the stairs before stopping, seeing that the trio just barely got down half the flight. He sighed and shook his head, but did not complain about it; after all, the bastard being half-dragged down the stairs had a busted ankle, was in poor health, and started feeling under the weather recently.

"You two need help?" he asked, garnering a look from Yuuki.

"We got this," the Yatagarasu replied in a chipper voice, and with that she and Takashi continued to lug Nagare down the stairs at a sluggish pace. Tenmei smiled and shrugged and decided to go down the stairs to meet up with them.

"You sure?" he persisted, his eye giving off a single spark of concern. Just then, as he went down another step, Takashi lurched and caused the Tengu's bad foot to meet with the step in question, causing the sod to let out a wail of pain. The Tanuki crossed his arms and shook his head at the display, and moved to stand behind the wounded man before putting his arms around his waist and hoisting him up a bit. "It looks like you don't got this. Good thing I'm here."

Kaguya looked at Takashi and rolled her eyes at him as the four finished going down the damned stairs and started making their way to the vehicles. "I dictate that he gets front passenger seat," she stated, using a hand to gesture to Nagare for emphasis.

"I was thinking the same thing," Tenmei agreed with a nod. "Yuuki told me he was clammy, and by the Seven Gods, he sure looks that way. A little air conditioning should help him if he's feeling this bad."

"Jeez, how'd he get so sick? I could've sworn he wasn't like this yesterday, or the night before," Rekka murmured, frowning as he took in Nagare's rather haggard appearance.

"Dehydration caused by trying not to drink forest water, which he said was polluted to hell and back," Tenmei answered curtly.

"Well, at least he's getting _clean_ water now. That should help flush the gunk out of his system," Mimu interjected, still hunched over the bombs.

"We'll probably have to let him have a bathroom break mid-trip, though," Tenmei sighed, removing one of his hands to gently pat Nagare on the back.

"I can see it now: someone helping him at the urinal," Mimi chortled, earning a snort from the Tengu. She laughed at the viridian man's noise and watched as her sister grabbed the box of bombs, slowly and carefully lifting it up before getting out of the truck's bed just as sluggishly, which took a little over a minute. Mimu then forked over the bombs to Mimi, who took them with a grin on her face. 

Then, she jogged to the motel and used a hand to open a random door before going inside, prior to coming out and rushing to another seemingly-random room moments later. While she did this, Takashi and Yuuki aided the Tengu in getting to the passenger's side of the van and managed to let him to sit down in a way that his twisted ankle couldn't hurt before handing him his katana. A good thirty minutes passed when she returned with just an empty box, which she hefted to the van and put in the floorboard on the passenger's side, between Nagare's feet.

"Rekka, Koto, you two—and _only_ you two—get the truck," Tenmei stated, causing the duo he just addressed to turn to him and send vexed looks his way. When their eyes glinted in askance, the Tanuki smirked wryly. "I… believe I interrupted you two during a bout of… horsing around a couple of days back," he added in a mocking tone, causing both to blush and splutter immediately.

"Let's get a move on, then. No use wasting more time than needed," Kaguya groaned, and started to reach out to the driver door's handle, only to inexplicably stop short. She turned to Rekka and Koto and asked, "Either of you know how to drive?"

"I do," Rekka answered after clearing his throat to stop his own blubbering. He turned a brief glare on Tenmei, who simply smiled back and waved one of his hands like he was saying hello. Without any further input, he and Koto opened the truck and climbed inside, before closing the doors and buckling up. The others rushed into the van and did likewise.

The Siren looked at the Shot and sighed, watching as he fumbled for a bit before spotting the key in the ignition switch and reached to turn it. "Does Tenmei think we're really going to… do _that_ in someone else's truck?" she asked disbelievingly, her inquiry causing him to stop before he could turn the key.

"He might, but we're not fucking in these seats. My ass is already aching, and I haven't even sat on this particular chair-of-sorts for five minutes," Rekka snorted, firmly shaking his head as the key was turned and the engine roared to life. "Trust me, screwing in this thing would be like asking me to shoot myself in the nuts—I simply couldn't do it willingly. That, and since it belonged to a bunch of brawny fucks, who knows what they did to the cab we're currently in."

Koto nodded. "Makes sense," she murmured. "Maybe they hid weapons in the seats."

"Would explain why my butt's hurting," Rekka replied, putting his foot on the gas pedal and grabbing the gear stick to shift the vehicle into reverse without looking at where he shifted the stick to. He turned to the van and watched as it started backing up towards the road, and waited for it to gain a little more distance before he pushed hard on the gas pedal, ignoring Koto as she began to speak up.

Only to find the hood of the vehicle he was currently operating in the wall of the motel seconds later, which caused him to jolt in surprise and his passenger to briefly shriek. "Ah, shit. Now I bet Takashi's laughing at me for my bad driving," he snarled, grabbing the gear stick and shifting it into reverse proper. He pushed the pedal again, and smiled as the truck complied this time and pulled out of the motel's new hole.

"I was about to tell you you weren't in reverse," Koto grumbled in a stern voice, shooting Rekka a glare. She reached out with a hand and firmly grabbed him by the crotch, causing him to gasp in surprise. "Next time you shift gears without looking, I'm squeezing," she warned, and when the redhead nodded to her with a wide-eyed look, she let go and pulled her hand back.

 _"Great, now she has me by my balls. Note to self: find chocolate for when that blasted full moon comes for her,"_ Rekka thought with a heavy sigh. He finished pulling out into the road, hastily shifted gears, and paused as if expecting the dreaded hand that wasn't his to accost him again. When he received a satisfied giggle from Koto, he relaxed and spotted the van already heading down the road to town. He put his foot on the pedal and pushed hard, turning the wheel sharply and causing the truck to swerve violently before he straightened the tires out and chased after the van, hoping to catch up.

He barely noticed a bunch of black cars and trucks going into the parking lot of the motel in the rear view mirror as he steered the truck around a bend to keep the van in his sights. He was silently praying that their drivers and passengers were the intended recipients of Tenmei's _parting gift_ instead of some hapless innocents who were not aware of the danger hidden in the decrepit walls.

The ground shook and an explosion roared in the distance, though as he gained ground on the van and away from the building, they faded into very dull tremors and echoes that tore through the air outside his vehicle.

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A black truck with heavily tinted windows was parked in the lot at a safe distance, with a driver and two passengers sitting inside and watching as burly and fat men poured out from the other vehicles and rushed into the building like a flash flood. Moments after all of the vehicles except for the one parked further away had been emptied, the motel erupted in fire, smoke, and explosions. Debris was sent everywhere, and dust quickly gathered from the mess and settled in thick layers all over the place.

In seconds, the building was completely leveled to the ground, much of it ablaze and withering faster than if it had been under normal conditions. The driver, a man with dark hair and a mustache, snorted when none of the men who went in came back out. "Tell me," he began in a raspy, rough voice, "to whom might I assign this responsibility?"

One of the passengers, a woman with long hair trailing down her back, sighed in exasperation. "I don't know who to blame," she answered sincerely, shaking her head.

The other passenger, a man with short hair, scoffed. He reached towards the truck's glovebox and opened it before pulling out a newspaper. "I believe I have a possible suspect," he answered in a monotone voice, handing the newspaper to the driver.

The driver looked at the headline, which read **'Boss of Stone Tanukis Confirmed to Not be Among Massacred Gang Members; A Wanted Man Still At Large,'** and scowled immediately. "Tenmei Wakizashi… has survived?" he asked in a low, angry tone which caused his passengers to flinch.

"It would seem so. Question is: how?" the short-haired man retorted, a frown set into his face. He watched as the driver crumpled up the paper in one hand and rolled down the window, tossing the wad out before making the pane of glass go back up.

"That doesn't matter," the driver hissed, putting both hands on the steering wheel and gripping it so tightly his knuckles went white. "When I catch him… ooooh, that son of a bitch will wish he hadn't fucked with Matsuki… he'll wish that landslide did him in." He turned to his short-haired passenger and asked, "Anything else?"

"Nothing else is available at this time, information-wise," the passenger replied with a shake of his head. "In fact, last I heard about him, he hadn't left your turf yet—let alone a bitch I believe you wanted to correct."

The driver scoffed. "She was dead, a little bird told me. Little blue-haired cunt was nothing more than a bad seed I should've pumped into another hole years ago."

"Then… why are we out here?" the female interjected, using a hand to gesture to the now-wrecked motel for emphasis.

"I wanted to investigate why the Yatagarasu Fellowship went silent, with a brief stop at this motel for a resting period—it seems that won't be possible now, though. I also wanted to confirm if it's true that they mysteriously blew up," the driver answered, hunching over the wheel and letting off an almost bestial snarl. "The newspaper yesterday said me and my men did it, when we had zero involvement. And that really _irks_ me."

The male passenger nodded. When the female turned to him, he answered before she could utter another word, "I've had a rogue mouse for some time now. He slipped out of my hold years back, so I sent some of my men after him—hadn't heard from anyone I've sent after this specific person since."

"Do you think he got away?" the female inquired, garnering a slow nod from the short-haired male.

"I'm certain he did. The cops found bullets in some of your men from a very specific pistol, correct?" he stated, turning to the driver who nodded back. "I'm taking the pistol back from my little rat when I get to him—provided, of course, he's still loose."

"What was your pistol like?" the female persisted, frowning.

"A double-action revolver, with a muzzle that's been modified to be more like a single-action," the short-haired lad replied with a small smile creeping up on his face.

"So, we have two rats to catch. All the same, the bell to disaster will toll for them when we cross their paths," the driver stated with an ominous chuckle leaving his lips. "The bell to disaster will toll for them yet, and then it's lights out."


	15. Chapter XIV- Roughhousing

It took some time—indeed, the hours rolled by and day became night once more when the vehicles stopped behind a small structure built beside a road surrounded by miles of grass-laden mountainsides. These mountainsides had a singular road stretching across all of them, one that went seemingly forever, but the group didn't care about that, and turned off the engines before they decided to rest up for a bit. Tenmei opened one of the back doors of the van and clambered out, walking over to the truck and peering inside to find Rekka and Koto staring vacantly through the front windshield.

He rose a hand and tapped at the passenger's window, causing the Siren to turn to him with a brow quirked. She leaned over and moved her arm a bit, and with her movements the window rolled down, though she stopped when the pane was partially lowered. "Yes?" she asked.

"What're you two looking at?" Tenmei replied, a vexed frown on his face.

"I'm watching the sky," Rekka answered from within. "Could've sworn I saw a star poke through the clouds just now."

"Should we rest in the vehicles, or get in the building we parked behind?" Koto inquired, looking at the Tanuki with a straight face.

Tenmei sighed. "Maybe getting into the building is a good idea, but…" he trailed off, his eye averting for a second.

"It might belong to someone else and that someone else might be present?" Koto finished for him, garnering a series of slow nods.

"At any rate, we shouldn't stick around for long. So, we'll hit the road at first light?" Rekka inquired from his seat, eyes still fixed on the sky beyond the windshield.

"Something like that," Tenmei stated tersely.

Koto sighed and leaned against her seat. "How's Nagare holding up?" she inquired.

"He's snoozing like a baby in the passenger's seat of the van," Tenmei answered, a soft smile framed on his face. With that, he turned around and scampered back to the van. He climbed inside and the door closed shut behind him, and when it did Koto rolled up the window before drawing a heavy sigh.

"Something on your mind?" Rekka asked, garnering a look from his companion.

"A lot of somethings," Koto replied, shooting him a soft smile.

"Such as?" Rekka implored, turning to her with a brow raised.

Koto's smile instantly fell, and her voice became quiet as she sighed, "Tell me… what's it gonna take for you to… to be less finicky every time I poke you?"

"Aside from asking for permission, nothing major, really," Rekka replied with a shrug. "Or letting me know I'm about to fuck up and doing…" he paused, blushing and crossing his legs together, "something to keep me from fucking up any more than I may already have."

Koto nodded and scooted closer to him, though not enough to brush up against his body. "So… why'd you leave the Ryus, aside from your branding?" she asked.

"You remember, before Tenmei found us, what some of those pricks said as we were hiding behind those dumpsters?" Rekka murmured, garnering a nod from Koto. "I think you can put two and two together…" he trailed off, watching as her face paled and her eyes widened in seconds.

Realization dawned on Koto, and she mumbled, "You… w-were…"

"Yes. Treated as bad as you," Rekka finished for her in a glum voice, his eyes seemingly dulling to a haunting dark maroon. "Truth be told, I snapped, swiped the head honcho's pistol, and made like a bat out of hell. That was why I was alone, until I met you—I was hiding from the Ryus." He paused to turn away and let out a mirthless, almost chilling laugh before finishing, "Wouldn't be surprised if they're still looking for my ass."

"And you jumped because… you thought I was going to…" Koto didn't finish her sentence as, slowly, Rekka nodded his head.

"Exactly," he said tersely, and in the same glum tone. "Although… it was my first time getting almost molested by a _woman._ "

Koto looked out the front windshield and saw that the sky was cloudless, with many stars shimmering about. "Tell me you're—"

Rekka cut her off in a firm voice, "No, I do not like taking cock up the ass. Or to the face. Get your mind out of the gutter, woman."

"I wasn't going to ask about that," Koto scoffed, turning to the Shot with a slightly-narrow-eyed look on her face. "I was gonna ask if I was the first girl to try to get in your pants."

"Yes, you were," Rekka answered, meeting the gaze with a bemused grin. "What, you thought Kaguya got ahold of me at some point?"

"Well, she told me not to hurt you, or she'd have my head on a pike if I recall clearly," Koto replied, frowning.

"True enough… but no, she didn't touch me in that manner," Rekka stated, his grin falling as he turned to look at the sky again. "I don't know why she flew off her handle, to be honest."

"I guess that explains a lot…" Koto murmured under her breath, tilting her head back to fall against the headrest. She asked again, raising her voice just enough that he could hear her, "I take it that's why you asked if I wanted to be the dominant one?"

"Growing your own personal third eye, are we?" Rekka mused with a chuckle that held a twinge of mirth.

"It seems I do," Koto replied with a giggle, turning to her companion with a glint in her eyes. She blinked when Rekka opened the driver's door and stepped out of the truck.

"I think we should check out this building. It's not gonna look at itself," Rekka stated, turning to Koto and beckoning her with a repeated curling of his fingers from his left hand. As he gestured, he turned to the hillsides and eyed them, seeing a faint light in the distance.

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The two ran to the front of the building, respective weapons drawn and at the ready in case any other soul that may have been present decided it was a good idea to attack them. Yet all they found was a mini-mart that had its signs, windows, and a door busted to hell and back. It also had a distinct lack of people that gave the place such an empty feel to it that Rekka seemed to look at it like he contemplated something.

Koto turned to him, noticing that he had a stoic look on his face. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"This place looks so deserted I'm starting to think it's giving my old home a run for its money," Rekka replied, a frown crossing his features. He took a few steps forward, but paused when he saw that Koto had yet to do the same. He beckoned her on with a hand again, and waited until he heard soft-hitting footsteps coming up from behind before making his way to the ruined mini-mart's door. He eyed the structure, noticing it was barely hanging onto one hinge and that it was slightly ajar, and he reached out with a hand to open it.

And the door broke off of its hinge like he had taken a sledgehammer to the damned thing as soon as he touched it, and it proceeded to fall down with a particularly loud thud that had both him and Koto flinching back in surprise. The duo exchanged looks and wasted no time going inside, with the Shot taking point as the darkness of the building's interior enveloped them. They coughed as dusty air assailed their nostrils, before sneezing and letting their eyes adjust to the sable, waiting for someone or something to attack.

Only musty air and silence greeted them instead, with the latter lingering for roughly five minutes as the two examined the room. To one side was a deserted counter with a few shelves behind it, and to the other stood equally-barren produce shelves and deactivated fridges whose glass doors were busted up to hell and back. A few paces to the back of this room stood a lone door frame that had a discarded knob resting at its righthand corner, rusted and forlorn and dented like it had been crushed by the hand of a youkai.

"Let's head to the back room," Rekka murmured, once more taking a few steps to it. Koto nodded and followed him, pausing when he stopped to kick aside the discarded doorknob before sighing and continuing on after her companion entered the next room. She entered the room and flinched prior to raising a hand to cover her eyes when, to her surprise, a light switched on overhead and nearly blinded her.

Letting her eyes adjust to the sudden shift in light, she noticed that she and Rekka stood in a small bathroom with a toilet, a sink, a mirror, and an empty paper towel depository bolted to the walls. This room was surprisingly spotless, with what being part of a dilapidated mini-mart that was seemingly abandoned in the middle of nowhere. "Something fishy's going on here…" she murmured, stiffening when Rekka walked around her and the sound of a door slamming shut hit her ears from behind as soon as he left her peripheral vision.

She whirled around and stiffened as the flick of a switch reached her ears. The lights shut off, but she relaxed as Rekka walked to her and calmly put his hand on her shoulder. "Listen," he whispered as her eyes adjusted once more. Koto nodded, and for a moment, silence took hold again. A sharply whirring engine broke the silence and echoed from outside, like a racecar being revved up for a grand prix, before stopping abruptly. Rekka knelt down, partially dragging Koto with him, and pried his hand from her shoulder before motioning zipping his lips.

The two tensed as footsteps reverberated before stopping as suddenly as the engine. Silence garnered precedence yet again, but only for a few seconds. A faint buzzing sound graced the ears of the duo, before a feminine voice that was deathly cold spoke up, "Nothing's in the mini-mart on Youkai Plateau."

"Nothing?" a faint, distorted masculine voice asked, the one-word question barely discernible amidst the buzzing.

"Nothing in, nor around—which is funny, because I could've sworn I saw something coming in on my way here. Nothing's here, unless me and my ride count," the cold feminine voice responded, followed by the sound of retreating footsteps. In another few seconds that came and went, the engine roared again before fading away, as if it were an echo that traversed through time itself to reach this dreary place.

"How'd you know we'd get another visitor?" Koto asked in a low, though serious, tone.

"Outside, I saw something on the road a few hillsides over," Rekka replied. "I wanted to hide in case whoever that was decided to drop by."

Koto nodded, and shifted to stand up, only for Rekka to grab her wrist and tug her back down again. "Stay down for a few, in case whoever that was decided to come back."

A good seven or so minutes passed, once again in complete and utter silence. When nothing came to intrude on their solitude, the duo stood up again. Another minute passed before Rekka briefly parted from her and switched on the light again. Koto tilted her head in confusion, and made to speak when she found herself with her back to the nearest wall in seconds, a firm hand pinning her by the shoulder. "Wh-what are you…?!" Her question went unfinished as Rekka leaned in close, to the point their noses were millimeters apart.

"Hold still," Rekka murmured in a low, tight voice as she began to squirm. Koto stilled immediately, eyes widening with confusion and alarm. She relaxed a little when he removed his hand from her shoulder and took a few paces back. "And earlier, you said something about you touching me?" he asked, his tone still low.

Koto hesitantly nodded, clutching her boomerang tightly and moving it between her back and the wall with one hand. "A-are you going to pull something?" she asked, gulping loudly.

"If I was going to pull something, I'd have had you at gunpoint," Rekka replied, holstering his weapon and causing her to lower the boomerang. He took a look around the small bathroom and shook his head. "As it stands now… we'd better leave." He went to turn off the light again, and opened the door before striding out, though he paused to make sure Koto followed him. The two went out of the mini-mart and back to the truck without further incident, and claimed their seats in silence. They resumed watching the sky, though this only lasted for a minute or so.

Koto put her weapon on the vehicle's dashboard before sighing and leaning back in her seat. She closed her eyes, but then jumped and sharply gasped when she felt a hand that didn't belong to her touch her left breast. Instantly, she jerked her head in Rekka's direction to find his arm stretched out to her. "You grabbed me by the balls earlier. It's only fair I grab you back," he replied, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Y-y-you hypocrite!" Koto spluttered, shooting Rekka a red-faced glare as he pulled his hand back and chortled.

"Aren't we all?" he chirped, his grin widening as she smacked his arm with a hand and turned away, crossing her arms with a beet-red pouty look on her face. He reached over and wrapped his arms around her, still grinning as she squirmed out of his hold and pushed him back to the driver's door without any trouble on her part.

"Then that means _I_ get to push _you_ to the door, by admission of your own logic!" Koto exclaimed, scrambling over before he had the chance to retaliate. She wasted no time putting her hands on his shoulders to keep him still, and followed up with straddling his legs as much as the seat could allow.

Rekka snickered again, his goofy grin widening a little more. "Pushover," he stated, lifting his hands to grasp her by the hips before pushing her into her seat, though he struggled a bit and only sort-of succeeded in dragging himself with her since her hands were still on his shoulders.

Koto pushed him to the door again, her grip on him still firm and steady. "What's that?" she asked, a wicked grin spreading on her face. "You want my boomerang up your ass?"

Rekka pushed her off again, though this time he managed to disentangle himself from her hands, and pounced her immediately thereafter. His hands shot out and pinned hers down, and he leaned in close again. "I'm not sure if that's a threat of violence, or a threat of foreplay," he replied, still grinning like a fool as Koto stiffened and began blubbering incoherently.

"Why I oughta—" Koto began, but was abruptly halted as a pair of warm lips met hers and silenced her on the spot. She tried squirming to get away, and made to kick Rekka in the groin, but his legs shifted to rest on top of hers and rendered that attempt as useless as a campfire in a heavy downpour. Only when she stopped did he pull back, sending her another grin.

"Never been kissed before?" Rekka asked, garnering a shake of the Siren's head as his answer. He shifted his legs a bit, but in doing so enabled Koto to thrust one of her knees up and hit him in the stomach, making him grunt and let go of her hands. She pinned him in a blur of movement again, this time with her hands on his neck, though she did not hold him tight enough to start strangling him. "Heh, you're a roughhouser," he murmured, grinning in spite of the pain that had settled in his gut.

"You seem to be a softie yourself," Koto replied, once more donning a wicked smirk. The Shot just laughed at her response, and quickly grabbed her hands with his.

"If I were a softie, I wouldn't have held you down, woman," Rekka retorted, his smirk also morphing into one of a wicked appearance. He pried her hands off of his neck and swiftly reached up, his arm going over her shoulder. 

He very briefly paused upon feeling hair before his hand snagged Koto by the back of her head, and he pulled her down to bring her at eye-level. She responded by reaching around him and grabbing his ponytail, prior to tugging it sharply in kind. "I guess we're even, Koto," he chirped, still grinning. With that, he released the lock of blue hair, and the Siren released her hold on his ponytail before clambering over back to her seat.

"I guess when we find another bed, we'd bruise each other good?" Koto asked sincerely, a smile on her face.

"Most likely scenario would be the bed itself being destroyed," Rekka chirped, shifting to sit on the seat properly. He leaned back and let his head fall on the headrest, a sigh escaping his lips.

"Us, destroying a bed? Unless my boomerang went into that equation, that wouldn't be very likely," Koto replied, giggling. Rekka burst out into laughter, though his fit died when he heard the tell-tale sound of a person knocking on a window. Both turned to find Tenmei once more standing outside the passenger's door, and the sod was grinning at them. The Siren rolled down the window again and asked, "Were you standing outside the truck this whole time?"

"Yep," Tenmei replied, still grinning. "Kaguya thought you two were trying to kill each other."

"Tell her that roughhousing would be our way of working something out," Rekka chimed in from his seat.

"Oh really?" Tenmei asked in an amused tone, his brow raising up. "You two were engaging in chaotic foreplay?"

"No, had a bit of a fight," Koto corrected.

"Lies," Tenmei replied tersely, his smirk widening. "You two just contradicted each other." At this, Koto flinched and Rekka started laughing again. "Just try not to break your ribs or anything, we still have to hit the road." With that, he returned to the van again, though he stopped by the driver's side door to loudly tell Kaguya what had happened. The shopkeeper started howling, but stopped when everyone else in the vehicle woke up and began raising a fuss.

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As soon as the sun poked its top over the horizon, the vehicles were on the move again. The van lead the way, with the truck behind it, and nobody in either machine spoke for a good fifty or so miles. Nagare shot a look at Kaguya and asked, "So, why'd you laugh last night? Who the fuck tickled your feet?"

"Tenmei did, verbally," Kaguya replied, a small smile splaying her lips. She caught sight of the Tanuki in the backseat via the rear view mirror, and he just grinned and nodded as if silently telling her that it was okay to continue.

"What?" Nagare asked, a brow raising up.

"Last night I woke up and saw the truck shifting wildly, and two people flinging each other in the cab," Kaguya replied. "So, I woke Tenmei up and had him check it out. He came back and told me Koto and Rekka were engaging in foreplay," she added, her smile widening as she caught sight of a small town in the distance.

"How's shaking a truck's cab foreplay, exactly?" Nagare inquired in a disbelieving tone, his brow raising higher.

"Rekka said, I quote, 'roughhousing is our way of working something out,'" Tenmei chimed in from the backseat.

Yuuki piped up from behind Tenmei, her eyes wide as she spoke, "Wait, you're saying they like it rough?"

"They seem to," Tenmei replied, turning to the Yatagarasu with a cheeky grin on his face. "Though I could see why Kaguya thought they were trying to kill each other—they threw themselves around in the cab, and I think I saw them tugging each other's hair at one point."

"Eh, to each their own," Yuuki sighed, shrugging as Tenmei turned to look at Kaguya again.

"I'll admit, I'm surprised she's a roughhouser," Tenmei remarked, garnering a look from Takashi.

"You mean Koto?" Takashi asked, getting a nod as an immediate response.

"Many hookers tend to be softies. In fact, Koto's the first legitimately rough one I met," Tenmei answered. "She did most of the throwing around, from what I could see."

"What would you expect of a woman who wields a steel boomerang as a weapon?" Nagare retorted, waving a hand dismissively. "She's a hard-hitter in combat. I don't think a bed would be safe from her."

"Fair point," Tenmei replied with a thoughtful nod of his head.

"Besides," Nagare went on, a smile on his face as he spoke, "I could also assess a person by their choice of weaponry, and how well they wield said weaponry. If you had decided to kill me when you stumbled into my hiding hole, which I thought you came to do, I'd have been fucked."

"So, would me and my sister be softies?" Mimi interjected, and instantly the Tengu chuckled.

"Yes, unless the Seven Gods of Luck decide to bestow you with more bombs," Nagare replied, his chuckle fading into a small snicker. "Tenmei, I didn't you you had a pair of twin terrors with you until yesterday."

Tenmei laughed heartily, and so did the twins. "You calling us terrorists?" the three asked at the same time, each and every one of them amused.

"No, because that would imply you're out to get everybody and their pet goat, instead of just hiding from a bunch of fuckwits who _are_ , in essence, actual terrorists themselves," Nagare replied, glancing over his seat with a giddy grin on his face. "Besides, we've started finding good shit lately, and gave at least one of the groups a taste of their own medicine."

"The Fellowship?" Yuuki guessed.

"Bingo," Nagare replied with a tsk, still smirking.

Takashi began grinning as well. He turned to Tenmei and asked, "So, exactly how many clothes came off last night?"

"They were still fully dressed, sadly," Tenmei answered, taking a moment to chortle again. "Though, if we gave them a little more privacy and an actual bed to sleep on…" he trailed off on purpose, ending his unfinished remark with a snicker.

"Oh, I see…" Takashi murmured, nodding as his mind began painting a rather lewd picture. He shook his head to rid himself of the thought and added, "You're implying they're taking a liking to each other."

"Psh. 'Liking' would imply they're only _starting_ their little relationship. Bet you ten thousand yen they fell in love when they first met," Tenmei retorted, another snicker escaping his lips. "Hell, Rekka came to me asking for advice when Koto started her serenade." At this, the shopkeepers both burst out laughing, and Kaguya slowed down the vehicle as another truck passed on the opposite lane.

"Bet you must've killed their mood," Nagare stated, and this caused Takashi to throw his head back and continue laughing.

"Did you make them sour?" Yuuki asked, causing Tenmei to turn back to her again.

The Tanuki shook his head. "Nah. They decided to quit even before I knocked," he answered.

"Phooey. I was just wondering how priceless the looks on their faces would've been," Yuuki grumbled, crossing her arms and sighing rather impatiently.

"Did they have their weapons drawn?" Nagare asked, his tone taking on a serious note.

"Nope. The boomerang was on the dashboard, and I couldn't see the pistol anywhere," Tenmei replied with a shrug as he turned back to Nagare. The Tengu nodded and turned to face the road. "Besides, I doubt they'd shoot or bash each other as much as we did you."

"When we settle in whatever new hiding spot we can find, I'm checking both for bruises," Kaguya muttered under her breath, keeping her eyes fixed on the road.


	16. Chapter XV, Part I- With Curtains Drawn

When the van and truck reached the town, the streets were oddly empty. Kaguya and Rekka scanned them, but found not one sign that the place was inhabited. After a few moments of exploring roads that yielded nothing but empty sidewalks and shut windows, the first thing that caught the fancy of the group divided between the vehicles was a small apartment that had a garage door-like structure to one side. It also had a multicolored pole encased in glass that sat next to the door. 

To the other side of the door, the word **"Foreclosed"** had been etched on an aged wooden sign. Takashi opened a back door and clambered out of the van when it and the truck stopped in front of the building, and ran to the massive door to find that it had a thin layer of rust upon closer inspection.

The shopkeeper knelt down, finding himself looking at a basic handle that had a snow-white spider web delicately attached between it, and the structure itself. He turned back to the vehicles, and gestured for someone to step out of one of them and come to him. Yuuki crawled out of the same door he left through, and wasted no time in running to him to see what he was doing. She knelt down and peered at the handle, and the woman went wide-eyed as a black spider crawled onto the web right where she could see it.

"Would you be kind enough to find me a box?" Takashi asked quietly. Yuuki nodded and stood up, rushing over to the truck and climbing in its bed to start searching for a small box. After shifting through crates and such, her eyes fell on a small wooden box in one of the bed's corners, and she reached over to pick it up. She shook it vigorously in her hand, and when nothing clattered or shifted within, she decided to open it.

Empty. The box was empty. Yuuki grinned and clambered out of the truck's bed before rushing back over to the shopkeeper, who had removed his glasses as he waited for her to return. "You want the spider in the box?" she asked.

Takashi nodded, and handed her the glasses. "I'd like to read its web in a few days. Think of it as reading a fortune cookie's paper," he replied. Yuuki nodded back and used one of the glasses' temples to carefully heft up the spider without hurting it or snagging one of its legs on its own web. She made short work of placing it in the box and closing the container before the arachnid could get out, and she handed the pair of glasses back to their owner who swiftly put them on.

Yuuki stepped back and clutched the box, watching as Takashi gripped the handle of the garage door and ruined the web attached to it. He grunted as he began to pull, a loud groan from the contraption filing and piercing the air as it painstakingly inched up and up. The man's body trembled as he struggled to raise the door high enough he could slip under it and lift it the rest of the way with whatever he could find behind it.

The driver's door of the van opened, and Kaguya rushed out of her seat to help him, almost tripping over her feet in the process. She caught herself, and wasted no time in meeting up with her co-worker and grasping the door's bottom. She heaved and pulled, and with her aid the door rose some five feet and eight inches in a a little over a minute and a half. The two backed away from the door, faces slightly flushed and arms aching as they eyed their handiwork. The garage had nothing of note in it, except for a much smaller door crafted of wood sitting at the far back.

"Well…" Takashi huffed, taking a moment to process what he was seeing. He turned to Kaguya and nodded. "I'll check the place out while you and Rekka park the vehicles."

Yuuki handed Kaguya the box with the spider in it. "Don't open it," she warned. With that, she ran to the bed of the truck again and dug around it for a moment before she managed to pull out her spear. As soon as she had her weapon, she ran back to Takashi, but grunted and held her lower back with one hand as soon as she stopped.

Kaguya mutely nodded and waited for the two to head to the door at the back of the suspiciously-empty garage before returning to the van. She carefully placed the box on the dash and further waited until Takashi opened the door and filed inside with Yuuki close behind his heels. She grinned upon noticing that the engine still lowly growled, and grabbed the wheel before maneuvering the van into the garage with the barest of pushes on the gas pedal.

Once it parked inches from the back door, the truck went in and parked behind the van. Almost immediately thereafter, Rekka and Koto emerged from the cab of their ride, weapons in hand. They rushed to the door and went inside, leaving the people still in the van confused, but unwilling to follow. A good twenty minutes passed by, and the lot tensed when they noticed only silence. Not one of the four who went in shouted out, not one gunshot rang through the building. There wasn't so much as a distant noise of a vase being knocked over.

"When do you think they'll be back?" Nagare asked, turning to Kaguya with a worried frown on his face. 

"I don't know," Kaguya replied, suppressing a shudder.

Before anyone could speak further, the quartet that went inside had returned, with Takashi giving the others a thumbs up. "All clear," Rekka called out, which prompted Tenmei and Kaguya to exit their vehicle.

The Tanuki went to meet up with the others, while the shopkeepers ran to the massive door and started to close it back up. "So, what're we dealing with here?" he asked.

"Small apartment, doubles as a barber shop, multiple bedrooms and two floors. All left behind. It's as if the owner got booted out yesterday," Rekka replied, wearing a grin on his face.

Tenmei's brow quirked. "Show me," he stated tersely.

"Gladly," Rekka replied, his grin widening. He and Koto went inside, while Yuuki lumbered her way to the van.

Tenmei paused to look at the woman. "Your back again?" he asked.

"Aching like a sumo sat on me," Yuuki replied with a grunt. "I'm gonna have to sit for a while."

"You do that," Tenmei sighed. He ran into the door, and found himself in a very short hall that lead to a small room with a few chairs, desks, and some broken mirrors. To one side of the small room that he entered stood a door which had been sealed off with wooden planks, along with windows that had their curtains drawn shut. To the other side a set of stairs was built into the wall that lead up, the steps upon which Rekka and Koto already stood.

"Up here is the really good stuff," Koto beckoned with a giggle. Just as Tenmei looked at her, she and Rekka darted up the flight like a bunch of giddy children rushing to a Christmas tree with presents under the branches. Tenmei sighed to himself and climbed the flight to meet up with them, shaking his head as they got to the top of the flight before he could and temporarily vanished from sight.

"What did you find that got you two euphoric all of a sudden?" Tenmei asked as he finished the climb, and he found himself in a short hallway that had six doors, three on either side. Strangely, there was an overhead light shining over the place, as bright as a miniature sun if anyone directly stared at it.

"Many rooms, and they all work," Rekka chirped, using a hand to gesture to the nearest door on the right-hand side. "Bathroom." His hand went to the door next to that. "Kitchen." His hand went behind his back, pointing at the last door at the end of the small hall. "And laundry."

"And what are these?" Tenmei asked, using a hand to gesture to the doors on the left-hand side.

"Bedrooms," Koto answered with a grin. The Tanuki rolled his eye and went to the doors, flinging them open one by one. Indeed, there was a series of bedrooms, a laundry room, a kitchen, and a bathroom. They all had appropriate facilities, down to a microwave, lamps on nightstands in the bedrooms, and a dryer in the laundry. They also had overhead lights, which bizarrely were still on and fully operational. However, none of the rooms on the floor had a single window, as if the constructor were afraid of peeping toms and bandits.

This made butterflies start flitting in the one-eyed man's stomach. "I'm starting to think whoever lived here had either a family, or a few friends," Tenmei noted as soon as he finished his assessment of the rooms. "And why foreclose this place without cutting the power?" He crossed his arms and lightly drummed on one of his elbows with a finger. "It doesn't make sense."

"Maybe someone else was gonna move in before we showed up," Rekka stated with a shrug.

"If that were the case, then why would they leave all this stuff here? Hell, while we're on the topic, why does this house with all this stuff have no windows on this floor?" Tenmei retorted. He took another cursory glance around and added, "Whatever you two do tonight, or in the next few days, keep your weapons on you at all times. I'm getting a bad vibe already."

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The day went on without further incident, and the truck's bed was unloaded as high noon set in. Nobody else came to the barber shop while the sun was up, and this made the group uneasy, though not enough that they'd lash out at every little thing. As night came after some hours, seven out of nine persons filed into the three bedrooms. The lights were shut off, and for the most part the minutes came and went in utter silence.

Mimi and Mimu kept watch after talking with Tenmei and watching him head off to get some sleep, ducking beneath the windows of the first floor and prying the curtains before peeking out to the road every few minutes. Nothing passed by; not one wild animal or person strayed into their cross-hairs.

"Sis, I'm getting worried," Mimi griped, turning to her twin with a vexed look on her face. The two closed the curtains again, and they stowed themselves away under the sills.

"I know," Mimu replied, her red-violet eyes glinting with worry. She stiffened when footsteps echoed into the room from outside, and dared not poke her head out from her hiding place to see what it was. As quick as they had come, the footsteps retreated and faded into the night. A few moments of silence passed, and hesitantly the twins rose from the shadows and barely parted the curtains to glance out into the street.

It was just as barren as before, utterly devoid of life. So they ducked down again and shared matching aggravated sighs. "Is this what Ten feels when he's on watch duty?" Mimi groaned, letting herself lean against the wall.

"Probably," Mimu replied with a shrug. She let her head drop, only to stiffen as a muted noise hit her ears. "What the…?"

Mimi was silent, and she sat up straight upon also hearing the sound. She waited for a minute before it hit their ears again. "Sounds like…" she paused, and as if on cue, the noise echoed for a third time.

Silence greeted them. A full minute passed in tranquility before they leaned against the wall, hoping the racket came from outside.

And still they got nothing. Mimi was the first to part the curtains and look outside again, yet the street continued to be barren, almost as if it were mocking her. She hid and sighed once more, only to stiffen when another sound echoed into the room. When it faded, she groaned and decided to start a discussion with her sister, keeping her voice as low as possible, "So…"

"What?" Mimu asked, a brow raised.

Mimi turned to her sister and sighed. "Why'd Ten not want to take up watch duty tonight? He'd be better at this than we are," she murmured in exasperation.

Mimu shrugged again. "Dunno," she replied, and stiffened when a sound hit her ears. She noted that it didn't sound like footsteps, knocking, or the growling of some kind of animal now that she heard it a few times. Hell, it didn't even come from beyond the windows, which she confirmed with another look-see at the empty street beyond. Which left one question in her mind: who and what was making the minute racket, and where were the perpetrator or perpetrators doing so?

"I'll check on the others. You stay put," Mimu sighed, and she rose to stand. She stared into her sister's lilac eyes for a minute before tip-toeing off to the flight of stairs. She ascended and vanished into the sable, leaving Mimi to play watchman with the windows all by herself.

Footsteps came as soon as her sister vanished, and Mimi stiffened. Then, the noises halted before two people began jabbering just behind the door she was so close to. "And nobody's bought or rented this barber shop yet… shame, really," a masculine voice scoffed in a sarcastic tone.

"Then again, it was just foreclosed," another voice piped up in an indignant huff. "Can't expect potential customers to nab it as soon as it's empty. It's like waiting for the cops; shit takes time, even if you live right next to their district headquarters."

"True enough," the first sighed. A few footsteps resounded, and the owner spoke up again, "Hey, wasn't there a spider here?"

"What're you doing, worrying over a fucking spider? Someone must've passed and killed it or something," the second person growled.

"But it's bad luck to kill a spider," the first retorted, his voice rising a little.

"That's just superstition!" barked the second. "Besides, we got bigger things to worry about—the Kuchisake's men are probably going around Nippon and scorching everything in their wake!"

"Bah! He's not here, nor are his men present! We still have loads of potential customers who want this barber shop. We're in the clear," the first scoffed. Footsteps retreated into the night, and with them the two men continued to quibble about customers and the Kuchisake Oni until they too became naught but the faintest of whispers in the winds outside.

Five minutes after they left did Mimu return. "I heard shouting. What was the ruckus about?" she asked.

"About spiders, customers, this shop, and the Kuchisake Oni… two men changed topics every five seconds. I'm not sure who they were—I didn't look outside until they left," Mimi replied with a shrug of her shoulders. "What'd you find upstairs, aside from the others?"

Mimu donned a sly grin. "Ten's blowing off some steam," she replied.

"Steam? Is… is he jacking off?" Mimi asked, her eyes widening.

MImu's grin only grew. "No, he upped the ante," she replied.

Mimi stood up abruptly, sending her twin a vexed look. "How the hell do you up the ante from beating the meat stick? Did he find a dildo to take up the ass?" she persisted, her voice an octave higher.

"Maaaaaaybe," Mimu replied in a sing-song tone, giggling as her sibling scowled at the vague answer which she'd received. She walked back to her window and knelt again, and her sister did likewise. Silence took hold once more, but was briefly broken when a soft moan echoed into the room.

"Is that…" Mimi began, pupils dilating.

"Shhhh," Mimu shushed her. "You'll see in the morning."

"I want to know now," Mimi grumbled indignantly, crossing her arms and pouting to herself. The two stiffened when footsteps echoed from outside again, and they kept themselves in a crouching stance as the steps came closer before halting again.

Three new voices piped up all at once, talking over one another so much Mimi and Mimu couldn't work out who said what. "Calm down!" a masculine voice barked in a raised voice that managed to overcome the bickering, and the other two hushed immediately.

"Sorry," a small voice mumbled, this one akin to a child's.

"Sorry," another small voice murmured. "We'll be good, daddy."

The owner of the first voice sighed, and footsteps started fading with distance again. "I love you kids, but seriously, we don't need to wake up the neighbors," he murmured, his voice also fading.

"You think the folks here are nocturnal?" Mimi asked, breaking the silence that set in after the trio of new arrivals left.

"Who knows?" Mimu shrugged. "I guess we'll find out tomorrow."

"Hopefully, we're not in another gang's territory..." Mimi mumbled, eyes closing and a hand raising as more footsteps echoed from outside. _"It feels like this night won't end..."_ she thought, rubbing her closed eyelids with her fingers.

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In one of the bedrooms, there were just three people, a bed, a nightstand with a lamp, and a dresser standing to one side. Tenmei, who was sharing the room with Rekka and Koto, sat on the side of the bed with the lamp on the nightstand providing some illumination onto the area. 

The Shot and Siren had done likewise, and they were having a bit of a heated debate. "Let me get this straight: you two wanted to talk to me about something?" Tenmei asked, garnering nods from Rekka and Koto. "Well, what is it?"

"Well… it's about what you told me a few… damn, it feels like weeks ago," Rekka mumbled before clearing his throat and sorting his thoughts out. "That, and the fact that you looked out for me and Koto, even when we didn't realize it… come to think of it, I'm starting to think you want something from us."

"Me, want something from you?" Tenmei inquired, turning to Rekka with his brow raised.

Rekka nodded again, and turned to meet the one-eyed stare without hesitation. "Yeah. You told us you wanted us to run away from town so fast the Oni would be eating the cloud of dust we left behind… and we've done that, with your help. Now I'm asking myself what to do, since we're holed up here," he replied.

Tenmei nodded, humming thoughtfully. "I'd like to sleep, but I'm… feeling restless. Restless as in I want to go to the nearest shooting gallery and stick crossbow bolts in every target before I can even fucking drop," he sighed.

"Truth be told, I was feeling the same way last night. It's why I was stargazing for a while," Rekka stated, donning a small but sly grin.

"Ditto," Koto added, likewise smiling.

"Are you two feeling not-so-tired again?" Tenmei asked, getting dual nods as his response. "Any ideas on how to cure ourselves of this bout of insomnia?"

Rekka's eyes glinted, and his smile widened. "I have an idea…" he trailed off, and when he did Koto giggled.

"What's this 'idea' that you have in mind, Redhead?" Tenmei inquired, his brow shooting up to his hairline for a moment.

It was Koto who answered, "We've been wanting to… get down and dirty, so to say."

Tenmei blinked. "Wait, you two want to do the deed? But wouldn't that wake everyone else up?" he asked, his tone taking on a worried note. 

"Well, I hadn't really thought of that, but I still kept in mind there's a possibility we could… well, screw up, if you get my drift," Rekka pointed out. "Maybe we could find gags or something to bite into…"

"That, and… Rekka and I chatted on our way here, and we decided we wanted a way to thank you for helping us," Koto added, causing Tenmei to turn his eye on her. "You've watched us, figuratively and literally, so…"

"Thank me… how?" Tenmei inquired, his brow shooting up to his hairline again. Koto could've very well meant she wanted to bash him, and it was lost to him because of how she worded her statement—it was so vague he almost had nothing to work with. The fact she mentioned his habit of following and watching them closely didn't help matters; if anything, that sent chills up his spine.

His eye went wide when Koto answered in a low voice, "Well… the only way I know how. You don't have to, if you don't want to."

"I-I…" Tenmei found himself unable to speak, instead making gurgling noises like he was choking on a cup of bleach. His face flushed, and he felt his heart starting to pick up in beating speed.

"Never been asked out before?" Rekka asked, garnering a shake of the head as his answer.

Tenmei gulped and took a deep breath, but this did little to get his drumming heart to slow down. "I-I think you… s-saw why," he managed to croak out. He felt a pair of arms wrap around him and glanced at Koto, gasping when her face hovered inches from his.

"Looks aren't everything to a person, but they can determine a lot about them," Koto cooed in a soft voice.

Rekka joined in, wrapping his arms around the two. "She's right," he murmured, a grin on his face.

For a moment, the Tanuki gulped. _"And now I'm between two roughhousers… please, Seven Mighty Gods, with what I've gotten myself into, don't let me be sore in the morning,"_ he thought, his face reddening a little more. "Fine," he murmured aloud, his voice a little unsteady. "But just this once."

"I guess that settles it." Rekka's smile widened as he turned to Koto. "You made the first move. You're the first to strip." Koto giggled in response, and peeled herself away from the two men before crawling around to hug the redhead from behind. He whirled around and wasted no time in pinning her to the part of the bedframe that touched a wall, knocking Tenmei's hat off in the process and causing the Tanuki to stare at them with a sinister grin spreading on his face.

"Oh, it's on now," Tenmei snarled to himself, his eye glinting as Koto struggled for a bit before stopping as one of Rekka's hands firmly pinned her by the left shoulder.


	17. Chapter XV, Part II- Trinity

"We have a third party; might want to take it slow with him," Koto chirped, grinning when Rekka leaned in close to her.

"But he might like it rough," Rekka replied in a whisper, smiling devilishly. He remained blissfully and completely unaware that the Tanuki was slowly and silently creeping up behind him even as his shadow casted itself unto him.

"Still," Koto murmured tersely, and she made to utter another word—before stopping and gasping when Tenmei jumped on Rekka's back with enough force to make the two kiss again. Rekka echoed the gasp, which was muffled, and his eyes averted to try to glance at the man that was suddenly on him.

Tenmei himself grinned at the two, and let up just enough that they could break the locking of their lips. "Heard you two loud and clear," he snorted in an amused tone. "I'm more of a middle-of-the-ground man, personally."

The duo below him turned to him and began sneering in unison, their eyes glinting with something akin to carnal joy. "You like roughhousing too?" Koto asked, the corners of her lips twitching as she spoke.

"I guess you could put it like that," Tenmei replied, his own smile widening. He grabbed Rekka by his ponytail and jerked his head back with a sharp tug, earning an immediate cry of alarm.

"Gah! You're asking for a good bruising, and I'm not talking with my hands here!" Rekka exclaimed, eyes widening in surprise as his long hair was pulled taut.

"You're gonna have a hard time with that, seeing as I am a walking patchwork," Tenmei taunted, his eye also glinting. Rekka turned around and freed his lock of hair from the Tanuki's grip, and shoved him onto the mattress with one hand on the throat and the other pinning a wrist.

Tenmei responded by raising his free hand up, and he shoved Rekka off after a few attempts. This, in turn, only paved the way for him to be pounced by Koto in short order. She grabbed both wrists and held them down, and she grinned wickedly at the one-eyed man. Before she could speak, however, Rekka jumped straight back in and gripped her by the waist, earning a squeak of surprise as he pressed up against her form from behind.

"Now don't start without me," the Shot playfully pouted, one hand moving to grasp the hem of Koto's shirt. He pulled the garment up, exposing her midriff ever so slightly.

Koto gasped when she felt one of Tenmei's knees rise up and connect with her crotch. "If you let go, I'll stop," the cloaked man chortled, grinning when the woman failed to release his hands. He deliberately rose his knee higher, slightly arching his back when it slid between her legs and prodded at both the people on top of him.

"I-I'm not letting go," Koto replied in a wavering voice, and she stiffened when the knee pushed and rubbed against her clothed labia. Biting her lip when the knee poked at her again, she hesitantly released only one of Tenmei's hands.

The Tanuki lifted his free hand and grabbed the shirt's hem when it had yet to release her breasts. Koto made to grab him again, but she didn't act fast enough to stop the hand as it crept under the cloth and found its target, causing her to let off a muffled moan. "Look at you, you let your guard down," he chided mockingly, giving the breast he held a mild squeeze.

Rekka responded by pulling both himself and Koto away from Tenmei, and the two landed on their butts a few inches back. "What the hell? Her shirt's not even off!" he stated in a mock-hiss, and with that the cloth obstruction was lifted off and cast aside in a matter of seconds. Koto made to cover herself, but a pair of hands grappled for her wrists and held firm, and she shivered with a blush spreading on her cheeks.

"Now it is. Your argument is invalid," Tenmei replied, sitting up and darting over in earnest. He wasted no time in grasping her by the now-exposed boobs.

"T-Te—" Koto was cut off as a pair of lips met with hers, and she closed her left eye as only one brown one stared back. She made to pull away, but found herself against Rekka's chest—in other words, pretty much unable to escape whatever whims they had in mind for her.

Then again, she barely put up any sort of resistance to begin with. She grunted when a hand not her own released one of her arms and snagged her by the back of her head immediately after. The hand sharply tugged, forcing her to break the kiss with a sound between a gasp and a yelp coming out of her mouth, which then became a moan as the Tanuki continued to fondle her. 

The third hand on her tilted her head back, then forced it to turn away. "H-hello," she murmured as soon as Rekka's visage came into view.

Rekka sent her another smirk. "Hello to you too," he chirped. He grunted as she moved her arm and elbowed him, causing him to release the other arm and her head. Then she flailed her hands around, trying to find purchase, and succeeded in depriving Tenmei of his cloak and throwing that aside.

Tenmei retracted for one moment before he reached out and grabbed her hands the next, pinning them to the bed so they couldn't grab something else. "Jeez, you flail like a fish out of water," he remarked, only to gasp when Rekka slid out from behind Koto, crawled over, and grabbed him by the collar of his shirt.

"Your turn!" the Shot exclaimed, and he wasted no time in lifting off Tenmei's shirt. Koto aided him by lifting his hands effortlessly, enabling the sleeves to let go of the arms so the garment could land on the floor.

"H-hey!" Tenmei protested, but before he could say anything more a hand cupped his chin and pulled his entire body forward. Koto surged towards him at the same time, and shut any further complaints up with a quick peck on the lips.

Then Rekka snagged both by the heads and pushed them to the bed, and because the Siren went and pulled the equally-hapless Tanuki towards her, he managed to position the latter on the former.

Koto began squirming again, but stopped when the hand on her head released her hair and trailed down to her shorts, inadvertently rubbing up against Tenmei in the process. The scarred man groaned as he felt the woman's last bits of cloth come undone and slide down her legs, leaving her fully exposed. The man on top of her turned around and pushed the Shot away, making him land on his back with the shorts and underwear in his hand.

"You sneak!" Rekka hissed in a mock-panic tone. He threw the clothes aside, and gasped when he felt the edge of his shirt lift off of his stomach.

"That's my middle name," Tenmei chirped with a grin. He pulled off the redhead's shirt, but could not cast it aside when Koto jumped on his back with a vengeance. She wasted not one second in letting one of her arms wrap around the Tanuki's waist, while the other was using all of its might from the elbow down to hold Rekka still.

"Are we dogpiling each other now?" Rekka quipped, chortling when Koto flashed him a grin.

"If that were the case, I'd probably have used both hands already," Koto replied, earning a grunt from Tenmei.

"Which you currently _are,_ " Rekka pointed out, a wicked glint in his eyes. He moved his arms up, reached around Tenmei, and grappled for her shoulders before pulling them both down onto himself.

"I suppose I a _haaaaam!_ " Koto's response devolved into a startled and drawn-out moan when she felt another clothed knee ram into her labia again with just enough force the impact resonated through her body.

Tenmei shot Rekka a devious smirk. "I think I know what _that_ sound means," he murmured.

"Ever make that noise before?" Rekka asked, garnering a rapid shake of the head from Koto. "I see." He reached as far as he was able—easier said than done, considering he was part of a bizarre mix between a sandwich and a dogpile—and grabbed one of the woman's buttocks. He pulled, causing her to lose her grip on both him and Tenmei before rolling off to land at his side, her back being the first thing that connected with the mattress.

Koto took a minute to gather herself, but it was one she found she couldn't have spared. The instant her back landed on the mattress was the same instant that the hand that pulled her by the asscheek shot out in a blur, aiming for her crotch. She jolted up the moment she felt fingers slip into her entrance, but another hand from Tenmei forced her back down.

 _"A-arraa?!"_ was the only sound that managed to leave her mouth as she felt the fingers intruding upon her canal wiggling about, poking and prodding seemingly at random.

"Hrrrrmmmm…" Rekka hummed thoughtfully as he felt her up, and when he felt nothing but wet flesh clenching on his fingers, he pushed them in deeper. This caused Koto to shriek again—in pain or pleasure, he hadn't been certain—but the sound was cut off when Tenmei climbed onto her and silenced her with another kiss. He relaxed her by gripping her shoulders and rubbing them, though she still made muffled moans every few seconds.

Tenmei broke the kiss after a bit, turning his eye on Rekka. "Anything?" he asked.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, from what I can tell," Rekka snorted, a smile curling his lips. He retracted his fingers, which were now coated in a layer of wetness.

"Ngh…" Koto grunted, her face now flushed in vibrant scarlet.

"First time with a set of fingers?" Tenmei asked, garnering a weak nod from the woman he had pinned.

"Just… got... " Koto swallowed, biting her lip and making a muffled moan when the hand returned to prod at her pussy again. "U-used… wasn't even a-alo _aaah—_ " Her words had, again, been cut off with another startled moan.

"To get off after?" Rekka finished for her, his brow raising.

"Y-yes, th-tha _aaaa—_ " Koto mewled, nodding her head fervently when the fingers went in as deep as they were able.

"Sounds like I hit the spot," Rekka purred, his smile widening. He pulled his fingers back slightly, only for Koto to buck at his hand wildly with a pleading moan escaping her lips. He pulled back once more, still grinning as his and Tenmei's willing captive bucked again, though this time she couldn't quite reach the fingers that started eluding her.

"Q-quit teasing m-me," Koto growled in a shaky voice, tossing her head to shoot a red-faced and particularly heated glare at Rekka.

"Or what?" Rekka replied in an amused tone.

"I-I-I'm gonna—" Koto began, but she shrieked mid-reply when she felt the hands on her shoulders shift and trail down her form so abruptly it was as if they weren't even on her at all. She turned to Tenmei, who flashed her a smirk which was further highlighted by his eyepatch and one-piece eyeglass.

"Enjoying yourself?" Tenmei asked, his tone somewhere between serious and amused. He garnered a hasty nod and a loud gulp from the woman, and he lifted his hands from her body. Before she could gripe, he threw himself back, and watched as Rekka rolled over and took his place.

But, the Tanuki noticed there was a problem present: a pair of pants was still on. After looking at his legs and realizing he was also partially dressed, his smirk took on a wicked look and he slowly, silently undid his trousers.

Koto grabbed Rekka by the neck and pushed him to the bed, before straddling his stomach to keep him cemented on the spot. Hands still clutching his throat, a feral gleam sparked in her irises. "You're mine now, you son of a bitch!" she proclaimed, partly exasperated and partly giddy.

"Really now?" Rekka chortled, still quite amused despite the fact that the tables had once again turned. He reached up and grabbed her by the waist, causing the hands clenching his neck to tighten their hold a little. The Shot decided to risk the chance of being strangled and let his hands move up, prodding and poking at every inch of skin until he felt the telltale mounds of her breasts.

"G-gh—" Koto's hands clenched tighter, hard enough to likely leave bruises, and she shivered when her boobs found themselves cupped by palms. Unaware that Tenmei now creeped up behind her like a cat stalking its prey, she swallowed before trying to speak again, "I-I swear, I'm gonna fuck you up so hard your hips will hurt for a week!"

"He's gonna have to wait in line," Tenmei snorted right as he pounced her, his chest and stomach pressing up against her back and one arm wrapping around her waist.

"Excuse you?!" Rekka barked as his smile fell, eyes wide and burning with a vermillion flame. Tenmei sneered at him, and he used his free hand to gesture below. The redhead followed the hand, and mentally smacked himself upon realizing he had yet to take off his last article of clothing.

Koto lifted one of her hands from the throat she still held onto, and lifted it to grab Tenmei by his hair, and then pulled to make his chin rest on her shoulder. "Maybe I could make _you_ wait in line," she purred, and with that she pushed herself onto him, causing both of them to get off of Rekka. The man who still laid on his back donned a smirk, and wasted no time in removing his pants, casting them aside before either of his bedmates could pounce him again.

Then he jumped them, only to be stopped by two pairs of hands, one of which was gloved. Rekka backed off a bit when the hands grabbed him by the upper arms, still smirking when the twin grip pulled him back. "Well now," he purred, locking eyes with Koto in particular. "So, you blue-haired vixen—"

Koto cut him off by forcing herself to sit up, her lips locking with his mid-ramble. She momentarily broke the kiss to mutter a firm "Just shut the fuck up, Rekka," before kissing again. The two yelped in surprise when Tenmei grabbed them both by the genitals and felt them up, forcing them to break the locking of their lips.

"So," Tenmei chirped, smirking when the two he started fondling looked at him with widened eyes, "who's gonna flip the tables _now?_ "

"Wh-when did you get impatie _aaaa—_ " Rekka began, only to stop with a drawn-out cry when he felt the hand on him squeeze a testicle.

"Oh, you better not—" Koto ceased speaking up when Rekka lifted a hand, snagged her by the back of her head, and pushed her down to his neck. She opened her mouth to ask why, only to close it with a shudder when she felt Tenmei push her from behind after releasing his hold on their junk, subsequently forcing her to push Rekka's back onto the bed. Then he climbed onto her back and gripped the back of her neck with one hand.

She tensed as his chest pressed up against her back, biting her lip when he pushed her hard enough to make her rest flush against the man beneath her, barely suppressing a groan as Tenmei's other hand touched her thigh and trailed up. "How much can you take?" he asked, the hand on her thigh parting for a few seconds before it came onto the asscheek in a hard slap that made her splutter in response.

"Ah-ah, mm…" Koto squeezed her eyes shut and bit her lip again, drawing blood before answering as the sting of the slap ebbed into a dull throb, "n-not much…"

Tenmei nodded, and leaned a little the left to better look at Rekka. "And you?" he pressed, a hint of a smile creeping up on his face.

"Same here," Rekka replied after licking his lips.

Tenmei smirked with another nod. "Koto, brace yourself," he warned, his hand moving to grapple his member. Koto didn't have time to react; her eyes nearly bugged out and she made nothing more than a short gasp of pain as something parted her anal walls with a little force and roughness before plunging about an inch or two inside and pausing.

Rekka frowned, and looked Koto in the eye with concern marring his features. "You okay?" he asked in a soft tone, garnering a shudder and slight shake of the head as his answer.

"Should've… lubed it," she murmured with a bit of pain in her voice. She relaxed when Rekka shifted a bit to let the tip of his dick brush up against her labia. "Oh… well, not the first time this happened."

Rekka nodded, and moved a hand to where Tenmei slapped her on the ass before letting it stray past her thigh and then trailing a line from the outer to the inner. "You think you can deal with both of us, at once?" he asked.

"Had to serve more... than two some days," Koto replied with a slow nod of her head. "Quit dicking around already." That utterance caused the two men to exchange glances, only to shrug and press their bodies up against her to the point it looked as though she was simply sandwiched between them. She groaned when she felt a second cock brush up against her labia yet again, before it prodded a bit and went inside and parted another set of inner walls without a hint of resistance.

Tenmei let the hand on her neck stray a bit, before it stopped to grip her shoulder and gently squeeze it. "Need something to bite on?" he asked.

Koto shook her head and licked her lips. "I'm good," she answered.

"You positive?" Tenmei pressed, punctuating his inquiry with a small, quick jerk of his hips. His brow rose when he heard her grunt, but it lowered when she answered after hesitating for a few seconds.

"If… if it's you two, I'm fine with it. I can… I can take the pain," Koto murmured, her eyes cracking open. The utterance caused the two men to exchange glances. Then, Rekka lifted a hand up and held no more than three fingers. In that moment, Tenmei understood what those three fingers meant—and nodded just once.

Koto reached around and snagged Rekka by his ponytail. She scowled and impatiently hissed, "Get on with it." 

Rekka donned an amused grin and pushed up, forcing the other two to sit up still bunched together. But because Koto had grabbed him without letting go, she ended up dragging him with. His hand then moved and cupped her by the chin. "Wish granted," he cooed, thrusting up and eliciting a mixture between a gasp and a moan.

Tenmei thrust after, garnering another grunt then. He took a few seconds to look at the faces of the two he was fornicating with; both were flushed in crimson, with one wearing something akin to a drunken sneer and the other with a wanton look in her eyes. He grinned at them both, his eye glinting with a spark of need. His hands moved to grip Koto's hips, only to stop short when Rekka beat him to it. Still, he gripped just above the hands not his own, and sent his fellow man a knowing smirk. _"Pull out at the last second,"_ Tenmei mouthed. _"Last thing she needs is to become pregnant."_

 _"Can do,"_ Rekka mouthed back.

"Why are you two—" Koto began, only to stop when both men thrusted up simultaneously. She let out a surprised squeal, her eyes snapping wide open as the sound left her mouth. The two moved in sync once more, this time with a little more force in their motions, and this left her trembling and moaning. She tried to lean back, but Tenmei lurched forward in response, keeping all three of them upright on the spot.

"Don't tilt too much, or we'll be in an awkward stance," Tenmei piped up, garnering a nod from Koto. She turned to him and saw that he was flushed as well—or at least, on the parts of his face not covered by his massive eyepatch. Another dual thrust had her shuddering. "Close already?" he asked.

"N-not q-quite," Koto stammered, shifting to let her forehead rest on Rekka's shoulder. "F-faster, please?" The two men let their grins widen just a smidgen, and they picked up their unified pace a bit, but not before taking a few seconds to prop themselves up on their knees and shift to hold Koto's legs up to make the process a bit easier for them all.

Rekka closed his eyes, letting himself groan as he and Tenmei kept up humping in sync. He didn't let himself get lost in the pleasure, however; there was still the matter of keeping himself balanced in the upright people sandwich he'd become part of. That, and precarious timing; the clock was ticking, and it wouldn't be long before he went over the edge into orgasmic bliss and subsequent afterglow.

Which meant he _needed_ precision of the military grade down to the last microsecond. He heard a whimper of plea from Koto, and he sped up only a little bit. He winced when she bit him on the shoulder—though he relaxed a little when she didn't draw blood. Tenmei sped up too, and as he did so his pace became more frantic. "A-ah fhuuck," he heard his companion murmur.

Koto whimpered again, her teeth clamping harder on his shoulder as another muffled moan left her mouth. Seeing this, Tenmei stopped altogether—Rekka did likewise. "Does it hu-hurt?" Tenmei asked, panting between words.

"Mhm," Koto managed with a slow, almost nonexistent nod of her head.

"Need me to go slower?" Tenmei pressed.

"Mm-mm," Koto replied, this time shaking her head.

Tenmei nodded. "If you say so." With that, he resumed thrusting, and so did Rekka. The two sped up, this time going as fast as their bodies and position would allow, pressing up against the Siren as sweat began to bead all three brows.

Rekka faltered a bit, his shoulder flinching as Koto pressed even harder—to the point that she punctured his skin and managed to draw a little blood. She released a scream that was muffled, eyes screwed tightly shut as she shivered beyond control and a warm fluid dribbled from her snatch. One of her arms broke free from between the two and flailed around for a bit, before she reached around to snag the ponytail yet again. "N-need s-something?" he croaked, slowing down to a dull jerk.

Tenmei slowed as well, his eye struggling to stay open as he stared at Koto. "Y-yeah?"

Koto let go of Rekka's shoulder and his ponytail before promptly slumping in their grip. She still shook, and when she met his gaze, he saw immediately that her eyes had a satisfied shimmer in their voids. "J-ju-just…" was all she could manage, before it broke off to give way to a ragged but tranquil breathing laced with a few short moans. "A… m-moment… p-please…" she uttered after swallowing heavily and then gathering herself.

The two stopped, staring at her with puzzled looks. Then Rekka noticed that he felt wet on his loins, and that whatever substance was on them was already starting to cool. "T-Ten, I think she just…"

"I feel i-it too," Tenmei replied before Rekka could finish. "How're you… f-feeling?" he asked, causing Koto to look over her shoulder to send him a sated, wide smile.

"R-refreshed…" Koto answered, tilting her head to let it rest on Rekka's shoulder. She sighed contently. "C-carry… on." It was all the invitation the two needed; both nodded and started thrusting once more, this time with frenzied abandon. Grunts and moans repeatedly escaped parted lips, occasionally broken up with a sharp gasp or harried pant. They almost jerked her ass up and down at this rate, their thrusts quickly going out of sync as they made to achieve release.

Tenmei came first, signaling his end with a loud groan as his hips slammed into Koto's ass and stayed still. He shuddered as his orgasmn took him, slumping a bit as he emptied his load without even trying to stop. Rekka made to pull out, suppressing his groan by biting his tongue as his member slid out of the woman's snatch and fired jism that clung to the outer lips and inner thighs like white paint that wasn't mixed properly.

The vision of the trio started to blur, and they crashed onto the mattress in a dogpile. They let off weak, tired moans in unison and rolled so that they wouldn't apply anymore undue pressure on their bodies. "I think… we're gonna be bruised in the morning," Rekka wheezed, turning to Tenmei and Koto before shooting them a smile.

"Worth it… though," Koto replied with a sluggish nod of her head.

"Damn… right," Tenmei agreed with a tired chuckle. He fumbled for a bit before he found one end of a blanket and tugged, wrapping it around himself and Koto like a one-piece cocoon. Rekka did likewise with the other end of the blanket, and the three curled up without exchanging any more words.

It wasn't until the early hours of morning that they woke up again as their door flew open.


	18. Chapter XVI- Limping Into Grunge

Kaguya stood in the doorway, her eyes wide and an amused grin spreading on her face. The sight of the three naked people wrapped in one blanket snoozing away caught her off-guard like an immediate slap to the face, and it didn't help that their clothes were strewn about like confetti. She stayed still for a few seconds, and made to speak when Koto let off a low groan and opened her eyes, sitting up and blearily staring at the shopkeeper for another few seconds afterward. She didn't notice that the intruder had bloodshot eyes and bags beneath them, and let off a yawn before realizing that one of her companions was even there in the door to begin with.

"Need something?" the Siren croaked, lifting one hand to rub at her eyes.

Kaguya hastily nodded, snapping out of her stupor. "Y-yes. G-get dressed," she replied before retreating into the hall. This was followed by the sound of another door opening and closing.

Koto's brow rose, but she said nothing. Rather, she languidly nodded back before wincing as pain settled in her legs and pelvis. "Gah... " She shifted with a hand hovering near her mouth, biting at her knuckles to suppress further groans as she made a sluggish effort to get out of bed. Her legs constantly flared with agony; a white-hot flame upon her nerves that burned with each twitch and bend, only momentarily dulling whenever she paused.

Nonetheless she managed to wriggle out of bed, albeit it took her a few minutes to do so without rousing either Rekka or Tenmei. Speaking of, she turned to them and smiled fondly at the two as they squirmed a bit under the shared cover without rousing themselves or each other, seemingly unaware of her leaving the bed. Koto set about gathering her clothes as silently as she could manage, which wasn't a very arduous nor time-consuming task in of itself, as she only had three items to collect.

She crept out of the room with the bundle of clothes pressed to her chest once that was said and done, wincing with every motion as her muscles continually flared such that it felt like her flesh was being stabbed with a thousand burning needles. The Siren paused in the doorway, turning to glance at her still-snoozing bedfellows when one of them started to groan.

Silence fell as the groan halted with an abrupt snort, followed by an arm that looked more like a patchwork rising and then flailing into the air before dropping back down to the bed. Koto remained still for a minute longer, and when no further sign of movement came from the bed, she sauntered into the hall from the farthest left door. She did so with a gait that could only be described as bordering on limping, and it did not go unnoticed by someone else already presently in the hall.

She heard a chortle, and immediately her head swiveled to where the stairs were. She caught sight of Nagare leaning against another door, looking back at her with an amused grin and his eyes fixed on her bare legs. Koto flinched and paled like a deer in headlights, and she let off a muted whimper. "Had fun last night?" Nagare chirped in an amused voice, his grin widening and his eyes twinkling. "You're shuffling like a freshly-risen zombie."

Koto hesitantly nodded and started shuffling towards him. She froze before she could get past one of the other doors, though, as Nagare lifted a hand and gestured to one on her left that was across from the one which she'd exited. "You're about to walk past the bathroom, woman. Might as well hurry along now, before Takashi sees you like this," he warned with eyes going wide, though in a tone bordering on mock panic.

Koto sighed and turned around before trudging to the door that supposedly lead to the bathroom. Shifting her free hand from her mouth to reach for the knob, a lump formed in her throat as she came closer. She tried to swallow the lump as she got within reach and grappled the knob, but it would not go away, and after a few times she gave up and turned the knob before opening the door to find a small bathroom beyond.

She didn't linger in the hallway a second longer after that; her face flushed as she strode in, and she closed the door behind her with a shaky hand. "He's worse at leering than Kaguya…" Koto mumbled. "Then again, it's my fault I walked out naked," she hissed, taking a few seconds to scan the bathroom. It had a sink, a mirror, a worn carpet floor, a toilet, and a bathtub—no more, no less. 

While the toilet was clean enough that it gleamed in the overhead light, the sink and tub were oddly caked in layers of dust. The mirror had smudge-marks streaking its reflective surface, to the point it seemed like it sported them for years on end. The carpet had several holes in it, some with singed marks and others crudely peeled back. Looking at the mess made a swarm of butterflies flit about in her stomach.

Koto made a beeline for the toilet, throwing the clothes at the foot before she whirled around to sit on it. Her legs stopped aching as soon as she parked, and she took a few seconds to take in some deep breaths and think a little straighter. "Kaguya wants me, Nagare's already awake, and my legs hurt every time I move…" She took another glance at a particularly odd hole in the carpet that was so neat it gave the impression of having been subjected to a die cutter. "Now I see why Tenmei was antsy yesterday…"

She sighed and slumped. "What next, a limousine belonging to the Queen of England?" The first two items of that musing, she could excuse; they were likely already wide awake by the time she came to. She chuckled at the absurdity of a Queen of England owning a limousine; given the circumstances, she'd have as much luck seeing that as she would erasing the scars on Tenmei's body. Speaking of scars, the ones littering the carpet seemed to jeer at her, though she shrugged that off as having been abused by the previous tenant.

The fact that her legs ached with movement made her chuckling die down, though. She flexed her left leg experimentally, and winced as the action caused pain to flare anew through her nerves. "Did I pull some muscles too hard last night?" she groaned, one eye squinting closed as she shifted the right leg to get more or less the same result. With it, her pelvis began aching as well, though nowhere near as painfully as her legs. 

"Fuck it." Koto stood up and stretched, only to immediately regret doing so as her legs flared in so much pain she almost toppled back onto the toilet. Barely saving herself by planting a hand to the wall, she gave a pained grunt towards nothing in particular. "Great, outta commission for a day or two," she hissed. She bent over and picked up her clothes before sitting back on the toilet to put them on without further agitating her legs. "Not as bad as having an arm in a sling for weeks on end, though."

She got dressed a little under a minute after, though she was still hesitant to stand up. A thought hit her as she turned to the clean-cut hole in the carpet: she might not have been the only one suffering from potentially-pulled muscles, but she was the first to definitely be aware of it. Her eyes widened and her irises shrunk, and she stood up again, although not abruptly. "If Rekka and Tenmei aren't up yet…" She sauntered to the door and flung it open, and made a beeline for the room across from it.

Yet again a noise stopped her mid-way, but now it was a sharp gasp, and she turned to the source that still lingered in the hall. Nagare stared at her with his eyes widening and a tight frown forming on his face, shifting to lean less on the door and more on his good foot. "Are you alright?" he queried in a sincerely worried tone.

Koto shook her head. "Rekka and Tenmei might not be, either. Stay put," she warned, and shambled into the room before Nagare could protest or inquire as to what she meant. She wasted no time heading to the bed, though fortunately for her Rekka grumbled something unintelligible and sat up at her approach.

His eyes opened, partially glazed with sleep and contentment. He slowly turned to Koto, and donned a dopey grin before it fell when he noticed her harried look seconds later. "Something wrong?" he croaked.

Koto nodded and steeled herself. "Move your legs and tell me if they hurt," she instructed. Her breath caught in her throat when he did as asked, only to hiss in pain as a result.

"Did I sleep wrong?" Rekka wondered aloud, his utterance causing Tenmei to stir into awareness.

"Who did what wrong?" Tenmei queried as he came to, his eyepatch sitting lopsided on his face.

"Legs hurt," Rekka replied, turning to Tenmei with a brow that was slightly furrowed.

Tenmei took a few seconds to process the terse reply and donned a frown, lifting a hand to fix his eyepatch. "How? Did you sleep the wrong way or something?" he asked.

Rekka shrugged. "Haven't got a damn clue, but they do hurt," he answered.

Koto cleared her throat and stated, "It's not just you. Mine are doing it as well." Rekka turned to look at her with widening eyes as she made the utterance. When she hesitantly nodded, he gaped.

"For real?" Rekka asked, his voice naught but a whisper.

Koto nodded again. "We might've pulled some muscles last night," she said in as hushed a tone. That caused Tenmei to sit up with a brow raised. She turned to him and groaned.

Tenmei's eye widened. "You're saying… we might've temporarily crippled ourselves last night?" he asked in a sincere voice.

"It's not crippling, considering I'm still standing. I think we should take it easy today, though," Koto replied with a slight frown forming on her face.

Tenmei flexed his legs under the covers and likewise grunted. "Goody, all three of us are aching." He turned to the other two and sighed. "I think Yuuki should be on watch tonight."

Rekka turned to Tenmei, one brow lowered and the other raised high. "Why Yuuki? Wouldn't she have trouble hiding in the darkness?" he queried.

Tenmei managed a smile at that. "If she had trouble hiding in the darkness, I doubt she'd have escaped from the Kuchisake," he retorted. "After all, she came to us in the dead of night." His smile widened as Rekka pursed his lips, yet didn't make a rejoinder to that. He added, "And she walks on all fours half the time. That makes her smaller than she seems."

"Good point. And the clothes we gave her would make her harder to spot?" Rekka guessed, frowning slightly as another ache settled in his legs despite him not moving them.

Tenmei nodded. "Bingo," he chirped. He lifted a hand and threw the cover off before clambering out of bed. He lifted his arms to stretch, but dropped them back to his sides when his legs warbled dangerously in response. He let off a hiss and flinched before sitting back on the bed. "Fuck, that felt like my shins got rammed with a red-hot poker."

Rekka tried to get up as well, only to stumble out of the bed with very stiff legs and crash onto the floor, almost hitting Koto in the process. "Okay, who decided to turn my legs into lightning rods?!" he yelled, folding his arms under his chest before forcing himself to sit up with narrowed eyes and a tight frown. "They're stiffer than telephone poles!"

That utterance was followed by a repeated stomping of a foot before it stopped and was replaced by a knocking on a still-opened door. The three immediately turned to the door to find Nagare just outside with a hand curled into a fist, his knuckles facing said door, and a very concerned-looking frown on his face. "Get dressed, because we need to _talk._ " His voice was firm and brokered no argument; it was one of finality, with absolutely no sign of amusement in its tone.

Rekka and Tenmei sighed in unison, but decided not to argue with Nagare. As they started to stand up on sore legs, butterflies started flitting in their stomachs as they languidly looked to their still-strewn clothes. Koto set about helping them gather their garments, and her still-limping gait did not improve as she did so.

~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~-—-~

Kaguya sat in a dirtied kitchen that had a table, a fridge, a dish shelf, some chairs—one of which she currently occupied—a stove, and a few microwaves here and there. She was eyeing many of the appliances that were strangely caked in dust, her gaze piercing yet distant. Her stomach began forming knots, shifting and tightening in discomfort as she spotted a stack of plates on a shelf to one side that seemed untouched by the dust.

One such dish was positioned before her upon the table, face-down and with some black gunk adorning the bottom whose origin she didn't want to question. An acrid smell hung in the air, one of mold and mildew, and she took very shallow breaths through her nose to spare herself from as much of it as possible. Takashi paced behind her, his shuffling steps providing the only noise within the room. His brow was furrowed and his lips were pulled into so tight a frown it looked like his mouth was trying to sink into his visage.

Then, Takashi stopped pacing as a yell cut through the room, muffled yet still crystal clear. His frown deepened. "What did he do last night?" he queried.

"I couldn't sleep at all last night, because I heard howling," Kaguya scoffed, turning to Takashi with a small grin.

Takashi turned to her with a brow raised, and he opened his mouth to speak before closing it as the door to the kitchen creaked open. He turned to it and let his expression ease as Nagare hopped into the room on one foot with Koto, Tenmei, and Rekka all dressed and limping behind him as though someone shot them in their legs. Kaguya likewise turned to the four, and for a moment or two she grinned at them before the smile faltered into a frown. "Sit," she stated in a firm tone.

Nagare hopped out of the way, stopping to lean against the fridge as the trio stood in place for a few seconds with a silent exchange of wide-eyed, uncertain looks. Then they obeyed, shuffling to the seats situated near the table before Kaguya could open her mouth again. Takashi pulled up a chair and positioned it opposite of them and next to his colleague before sitting in it, sighing as he turned to the lone plate on the table.

"It's about this place, isn't it?" Koto asked in a low voice, causing Kaguya to blink with widening eyes.

She shuddered as, soon after that, Kaguya gave a solemn and slow nod. She lifted a hand and tenderly put it on the plate's exposed, grunge-laden underside before curling the tips of her fingers after shifting said hand to get to the thing's edge. "This," she announced as she got her fingers under the plate and lifted it up with a firm grip, "is our problem."

Rekka scanned the plate, pupils shrinking and heart jumping all the way to his uvula as he bore witness to a very peculiar scrawling that rested on the face of the plate. A scrawling depicting a snake-necked, slender-bodied, horse-hoofed, peacock-feathered creature drawn in the same substance as that which globbed itself onto the back like drying splotches of paint. Tenmei stiffened, and he heard Koto draw uneven breaths with each passing second.

Silence held for several minutes on end before everyone turned their attention to the door as someone shuffled inside. Their gazes dropped downwards as Yuuki entered on all fours, hands and feet half-dragging and half-scraping on the floor. She took in paled faces, hardened expressions, and a flat stare in Nagare's case before she rose to stand upright. "Half of you look like you just got out of an erupting volcano. What's going on?" Yuuki queried.

"Come here so I can show you something," Kaguya beckoned, lifting her free hand to gesture the Yatagarasu over. Yuuki came over and took a seat next to Koto before her eyes fell onto the plate with the chimerical scrawling that blemished its face. She blinked before noticing the hand that beckoned her now shifted, curling into a fist with the index finger stretching out and turning to the scrawling in question. "Does this ring any bells?"

For a few minutes on end, Yuuki stared at the picture, silently scrounging the depths of her mind as she let its presence sink in and come to the forefront of her thoughts. All eyes fell onto her, two and a half pairs still wide, one remaining indifferent, and the last two bearing slightly furrowed brows above them. Then, she shook her head. "I could've sworn I've seen it somewhere before, but I don't know what all it means or who uses it. Sorry," she replied.

Kaguya turned to Nagare, who likewise shook his head. "Afraid I'm in the same boat. First time I've seen such a scribbling," he stated in a low voice.

Then she turned to Tenmei, who shrunk back under the gaze like he was ass-naked and standing on center stage in a crowded auditorium. "Do the twins know what it is?" Kaguya queried, her voice tight.

Tenmei shook his head with a sullen frown forming on his face. "I doubt it," he answered. He stared at the shopkeepers for a moment that felt as though it stretched to eternity, seeing something flickering in their eyes—sparks of worry and fear that he knew all too well. "I take it you both know what it means?" he guessed, and silence blanketed the room.

After several minutes, Kaguya very slowly nodded, donning a glum frown as her brow slanted. "Yes. Same boat as you lot," she answered. That one utterance caused Yuuki to emit a choking sound, Nagare's eyes to widen, and Tenmei to pale to the point it looked as though he'd been bleached.

Rekka stood up abruptly, wincing as pain flared in his legs before shifting a hand to rest it on the table. He leaned forward, using his hand as support. "What does it mean?" he queried, his eyes narrowing as he turned to the accursed plate and glared at the thing like he wanted to smash it.

Takashi spoke up, likewise leaning forward, "Considering we're in a seemingly-foreclosed place with working appliances, I have reason to believe this _was_ a stronghold of sorts."

"Was?" Koto parroted, blinking before turning to Takashi with a brow raised.

"Care to elaborate?" Nagare piped up.

Takashi nodded. "I think authorities drove out the previous tenants on a hunch. A hunch that they were affiliated with a gang," he replied.

Rekka leaned back and threw his hands into the air, though he made certain not to whap Tenmei and Koto in the process. Then he turned to the ceiling. "Just perfect! Fan-fucking-tastic!" he snarled. Then he let his arms drop as he turned to look back at Takashi and relaxed a little before he pressed, "You think the other gang might be on the run from the Kuchisake as well?"

Kaguya bit her lip for a second, shuddering a bit before she set the plate face-down on the table. "Either that or working with him. We don't know for certain yet," she stated.

Rekka nodded and sat back down. "Even _better,_ " he scoffed.

"Were you… members of the gang or something?" Koto queried, frowning.

Kaguya and Takashi shook their heads in unison. "We've had run-ins with people bearing that symbol on their bodies in the past. But they weren't as frequent or as loud as the Kitsunes were, nor did they tell us who or what group they worked for. We don't know much ourselves," the latter replied, shrugging his shoulders once he finished.

"Did they threaten you in any way?" Yuuki piped up.

Kaguya nodded that time. "Yes they did. But that was so long ago I can hardly remember the faces of those particular gangsters, let alone what exactly they said at the time," she stated.

"Regardless, we have to be on our toes for however long we stay here. Should any person bearing this sigil be present in this town, be wary. At the least, we have to stick together and stay armed," Takashi warned, garnering five nods as soon as he finished speaking. "And if they're clothed like someone among us, from head to toe, stay away from them for as long as possible."

"Provided they show up to begin with," Rekka retorted, though he did nod in assent.

"Yes." Takashi turned to Nagare. "Could you go tell Mimi and Mimu, please?"

Nagare nodded. He turned to the door and started hopping his way out, only to stop when the twins in question entered the room and almost ran into him. He sighed and looked at them closely before seeing bloodshot eyes with heavy bags beneath. The twins stared back at him, and for a few seconds not one of the three uttered so much as a syllable.

Tenmei turned to the three and decided to break the silence, "Girls, we may have more problems yet. Stay on guard."

The twins exchanged glances and balked before turning to Nagare as he hopped back towards the fridge. "Is he being paranoid again?" Mimi asked in a sincere tone, garnering a shake of the head as her answer.

Rekka turned to the twins, also shaking his head. "Sadly, no. It's worse," he stated.

Mimu turned to him, her eyes widening. "Worse? How?" she pressed.

Takashi slumped in his seat. "You two, sit. It's a bit of a long story…" he started with a frown.


End file.
